Capt. We have been fishing in troubled waters. The peasants rob each other; we may be well pardoned helping them. 2d Wom. What hast thou got, Wolf? the spit-A bundle of linen-some kitchen Wolf. A hare and a cock-there's for -What hast surgents are artful enough to introduce, and to make the most of, that he by his influence might be enabled to repress outrage and bloodshed on the one side, and on the other to obtain, in a quiet manner, redress of certain real grievances of which these peasants had reason to complain-the die is at last thrown, and the noble Goetz becomes the nominal leader of this rebellion. We say the nominal leader, because in reality he is never their commander. They are eternally jealous of him of his honour and of his pride-and they break forthwith the oath, which they had taken to him when he joined them, against rapine and bloodshed. Goetz feels, too late, that it had been better for him to die at once, than to throw himself into the arms of these ruffians. A violent scene of mutual recrimination occurs- Berlichingen strikes down the most insolent of the mob leaders, and rides away from them solus into the forest. It rains and thunders at midnight in the forest. He comes suddenly in front of a gipsy hut-there is a fire before the hut, at which the mother of the tribe and a little girl are sitting. Mother. Throw some fresh straw up the thatch, daughter; it rains fearfully. Other Gipsy-women enter with children at their backs. 1st Wom. Hast thou fared well? 2d Wom. Ill enough-The whole country is in uproar-one's life is not safe a moment. Two villages are in a light flame. 1st Wom. So it was the fire that glared in the sky-I looked at it long; for flaming meteors have become so common. The Captain of the Gipsies enters with three of his gang. Capt. Heard ye the wild huntsman ? 1st Wom. He passed by us but this mi nute. Capt. How the hounds gave tongue !— Wow! Wow! 2d Man. How the whips clang! 3d Man. And the huntsman cheered them-Hollo-ho! Mother. "Tis the devil's chase. ware and a horse's bridle.. thou, Sticks? Sticks. An woollen jacket have I, and a pair of stockings, and one boot, and a flint and tinder-box. Gipsy. Horsemen come through the wood-They are confederates. Capt. Your pursuers!-They shall not reach you-Away, Schricks, call the others: we know the passes better than they-We shall bring them down ere they are aware of us. (Exeunt Captain and Man-gipsies with their guns. Goetz. (Alone.) O Emperor! Emperor ! Robbers protect thy children—(A sharp fire of musketry is heard.)-The wild fo resters! Steady and true! Enter Women. Women. Save yourself!--The enemy have overpowered us. Goetz. Where is my horse? Women. Here! Goetz. (Girds his horse and mounts without his armour.) For the last time shall you feel my arm-Never was it so weak. (Exit.-Tumult. Women. He gallops to join our party. Enter WOLF. Wolf. Away! Away! All is lost.-The Captain shot dead.-Goetz a prisoner. (The Women scream and fly into the woods. This, the final capture of Berlichingen, brings us near to the end of the fourth act of the drama. The fifth is full of action, however, and of interest -the scene, throughout, lying not, as heretofore, in woods, wilds, and castles, but in imperial dungeons, and the still more murky caverns, where the famous Secret Tribunal holds its mysterious meetings. The wicked woman who seduced Weislingen from his vows of love and honour, having accomplished all the purposes for which she made him the victim of her artifices, has transferred her affections, (if such a term may be admitted) first to his servant Francis, and afterwards to a more noble rival, Charles, the heir-apparent of the Imperial throne. In order to pave the way for a union with the Prince, she persuades the page Francis that he alone is the lord of her desires, and engages him to the nefarious plan of poisoning the new husband, of whom she has had time enough to be thoroughly weary. Weislingen dies in the midst of pain, agony, and deadly remorse for his behaviour to his benefactor Goetz. The arm of the law is too weak to avenge him; but a terrible arm, never seen but in the blow it deals, is not wanting to supply the defect, and Adela's doom is pronounced by the invisible judges whose decree can neither be changed nor resist ed. The reader must bear in mind, that Goetz of Berlichingen appeared long before the same materials were made use of by the authors of the well-known romances of Hermann von Unna, and Alf von Duillmann. SCENE-A narrow vault dimly illuminated The Judges of the Secret Tribunal discovered seated, all muffled in black cloaks, and silent. Eldest Judge. Judges of the Secret Tribunal, sworn by the cord and the steel to be unpitying in justice, to judge in secret, Eld. Judge. Cryer, begin the diet of judgment. Cryer. I cry for accusation against misdoers! Whose heart is pure, whose hand is clean, let him accuse, and call upon the steel and the cord for Vengeance! vengeance! vengeance! Accuser (comes forward.) My heart is pure from misdeed, and my hand clean from innocent blood:-God pardon my sins of ignorance, and frame my steps to his way!—I raise my hand aloft, and cry, Vengeance! vengeance! vengeance! Eld. Judge. Vengeance upon whom? Acc. I call upon the cord and upon the steel for vengeance against Adela von Weislingen. She has committed adultery and murder-She has poisoned her husband by the hands of his servant-the servant hath slain himself the husband is dead. Eld. Judge. Swearest thou by the God of truth, that thy accusation is true? Acc. I swear! Eld. Judge. Dost thou take upon thy own head the punishment of murder and adultery, should it be found false? Acc. I take it. Eld. Judge. Your voices? (They converse a minute in low whispers. Acc. Judges of the Secret Tribunal, what is your doom upon Adela von Weislingen, accused of murder and adultery? Eld. Judge. She shall die!—shall die a bitter and double death!-By the double doom of the steel and the cord shall she expiate the double misdeed. Raise your hands to heaven, and cry, Woe unto her! -Be she given to the hand of the avenger. All. Woe! woe! Eld. Judge. Come forth, avenger. (A man advances.) There hast thou the cord and the steel!Within eight days must thou take her from before the face of heaven wherever thou findest her, let her no longer cumber the ground.-Judges, ye that judge in secret and avenge in secret like the Deity, God keep your hearts from wickedness, and your hands from innocent blood! (The Scene closes. We must now come to the closing scene of Goetz von Berlichingen. He is alone with his wife in the prison at Heilbron. Eli. I entreat thee, my dear husband, be comforted!-Thy silence distresses me -thou retirest within thyself. Come, let me see thy wounds; they mend daily-In this moody melancholy I know thee no longer! Goetz. If thou seekest Goetz, he is long since gone!-One by one have they robbed me of all I held dear-my hand, my property, my freedom, my renown !My life! what is that to what I have lost ?What hear you of George? Is Lerse gone to inquire for George? Eli. He is, my love!-Raise yourself -you will sit more easily. Goetz. Whom God hath struck down raises himself no more!-I best know the load I have to bear-Misfortune I am inured to support-But now it is not Weis lingen alone, not the peasants alone, not the death of the Emperor, or my woundsIt is the whole united- My hour is come! I had hoped it would have come only with my death-But his will be done! Eli. Wilt thou eat anything? Goetz, No, my love!-Does the sun shine without ? Eli. A fine spring day. Goetz. My love, wilt thou ask the keep er's permission for me to walk in his little garden for half an hour, to enjoy the clear face of heaven, the open air, and the blessed sun? Maria. Safety to my brother !-But my heart is torn asunder-Weislingen is dead! poisoned by his wife. My husband is in danger; the princes will be too powerful for him: they say he is surrounded and be sieged. Eli. Hearken not to rumour; and let not Goetz remark aught. Maria. How is it with him? 1 Eli. I fear he will hardly long survive thy return the hand of the Lord is heavy upon him-And George is dead! Maria. George!-The gallant boy! Eli. When the miscreants were burning Miltenberg, his master sent him to check their villainy-At that moment a body of cavalry charged upon them: had they all behaved as George, they would have given a good account of them-Many were killed: and poor George he died the death of a cavalier! Maria. Does Goetz know it? Eli. We conceal it from him-He ask me ten times a-day about him, and sends e as often to see what is become of Feorge. I fear his heart will not bear his last wound. be under thy heaven! How free! The trees put forth their buds, and all the world hopes.. -Farewell, my children! my buds are crushed, my hope is in the grave! Eli. Shall I not send Lerse to the cloister for thy son, that thou may'st see and bless him? Goetz. Leave him where he is he needs not my blessing-he is holier than I.Upon our wedding, Elizabeth, could I have thought I should die thus ?-My old father blessed us, and a succession of noble and gallant sons arose at his prayer-Thou hast not heard him-I am the last. Lerse, thy countenance cheers me in the hour of death, as in our most noble fights: then, my spirit encouraged you; now, yours supports mineOh, that I could but see George once more, to warm myself at his look! You look down and weep He is dead? George is dead ?-Die, Goetz !— Thou hast outlived thyself, outlived the noblest- How died he ?Alas! they took him at Miltenberg, and he is executed? Eli. No-he was slain there!-he defended his freedom like a lion. Goetz. God be praised! He was the kindest youth under the sun, and a gallant -Now dismiss my soul-My poor wife! I leave thee in a wretched world. Lerse, forsake her not! Lock your hearts carefully as your doors. The age of frankness and freedom is past that of treachery begins. The worthless will gain the upperhand by cunning, and the noble will fall into their net.-Maria, God restore thy husband to thee! may he never fall the deeper for having risen so high !-Selbiss is dead-and the good Emperor-and my George Give me some water!-Heavenly sky!-Freedom! freedom! [He dies. Eli. Only above! above with thee! The world is a prison-house. Maria. Gallant and gentle!-Woe to this age that has lost thee! Lerse. And woe to the future, that cannot know thee! Such is the conclusion of this perwhich the catastrophe is more simply formance. We know few dramas in and pathetically complete. We shall not injure its effect by any comments. One word at closing. We have no doubt that many readers will be inclined to smile at what they will consider the apparent want of all due procimens of this piece which we have portion and relation between the spegiven, and the general remarks with which we introduced them. This picture of freebooting, insurrection, ra Maria. O God! what are the hopes of pine, faithlessness, bloodshed, meant his world! Enter GOETZ, LERSE, and Keepers. to make men in love with the days of gogues, the modern world has been continually and progressively improving in everything that really concerns the wellbeing of men and of societies. We have no need to be ashamed of our ancestors; and, instead of hewing out entirely new institutions for our posterity, we ought to be contented with preserving for them those which we ourselves inherited-gradually amending and refining themselves, as these always have been, and always must be, in proportion to the increasing civilization and illumination of the world. matter. No one ever wished to defend the lawlessness of those old times-no one in his senses ever wished to represent the era of barons, and burghers, and rapine, and rebellion, as better than the days of quiet, and subordina→ tion, and settled government. But an attempt was made in the last age in Europe, and made with astonishing skill as well as zeal, to persuade men that there was, in the days of their forefathers, everything to be ashamed of, nothing to be proud of. The most successful literature of our age has been directed to meet this attempt, and this only: And the author of Goetz von Berlichingen, has the honour of having been the first to give this direction to the most potent engine in the modern world. The lesson, the great lesson to be derived from this drama, and from all the works which have been composed in the same view—is simply this, that in spite of all the sneers of philosophers, the elements of virtue and excellence were predominant among those who formed the Gothic institutions of Europe; and, secondly, that in spite of all the outcry of dema The translation, from which we have quoted so largely, appeared in the midst of the first volunteering enthusiasm in this country; and we are old enough to entertain a distinct recollection of the powerful impression which its fine warlike tone, and lofty character of sentiment throughout, made upon the minds of many, who were then, for the first time, begin-. ning to think, as well as to sing, "No music like my bugle-horn." P. K. THE SHEPHERD'S COT. You ask me, do you, for the Shepherd's cot, A spectacle that oft, in reverie, I conjured up 'mid city noise and strife, To whisper me of sweetest solitude; And, as I wander'd 'mid these scenes, which bring A bright acquaintanceship with boyish days. In the park I stood; but lo! the orchard trees— But orchard there was none. Instead, behold Where oxen low'd, and melancholy sheep Yet the tall ash-tree, from the ravage spared, Ruin grey Had made an altar of its wasted walls, O'er which aslant the mouldering roof-tree hung; D Its loose nest, fearless of rude schoolboy's hand; Rotten and dark, the glutinous houseleek struck Stood the bare lattice boles, still whitening-stain'd; Lay straw and stones, rank weeds and stagnant water. 'Mid sunshine, the green turf-seat by the door, Our rustic playmates, where was each, were all? Brief though our human life may be, my friend, Makes both our misery and happiness, Life's poison, and its antidote. Our fears People with hideous shapes the shadowy future; Conjures unreal phantoms, frowning all, Children of doubt and death; while blue-eyed Hope, With iris-hues, colours the fields of earth, Pierces through the dark, and, triumphing in faith, Sees gold-illumined pinnacles-bright joys Calm cloudless skies and bliss without an end. As the mind sinks and soars, (you have felt it so,) Tinged by the mind, reality becomes Darker or brighter, ever trembling, like The needle to the pole, it follows still. The wintry cloud that, with its sombre shade, Showers, and at length is scatter'd by the wind- Even as we gaze, change follows change; at length A |