Prince Friedrich of Homburg Read online

  HOHENZOLLERN: I have said enough, my Lord. I’m certain my words won’t fail to have an effect.

  SCENE 6

  [An officer enters. The above.]

  OFFICER: The Prince will be here shortly, Your Majesty.

  ELECTOR: Good. Have him come in.

  OFFICER: It’ll be a few minutes yet. As he was on his way here, he stopped to ask a watchman to open the churchyard gate.

  ELECTOR: The churchyard gate?

  OFFICER: Yes, my sovereign Lord.

  ELECTOR: For what purpose?

  OFFICER: To tell the truth, I do not know. It seems he wished to see the grave to which your orders have condemned him.

  [The officers gather together and confer.]

  ELECTOR: It doesn’t matter. Have him come in as soon as he arrives. [He steps up to the table once again and examines his papers.]

  TRUCHSS: Here come the guards now escorting the Prince.

  SCENE 7

  [The Prince of Homburg enters. An officer with the guards. The above.]

  ELECTOR: My young Prince, I call on you for help. Colonel Kottwitz has brought me this petition on your behalf. Please look at it; it’s been signed by a hundred noblemen and says the army demands your freedom and cannot accept the verdict of the military court. Read and judge it for yourself, I beg you! [He gives him the document.]

  PRINCE [After studying the paper briefly, he turns and looks at the circle of officers standing by.]: Kottwitz, old friend, let me shake your hand. You’ve done more for me today than I earned from you on the day of battle. But now hurry back to Arnstein from where you came and do not budge from there. I have considered the matter and wish to die according to the sentence. [He hands the petition back to Kottwitz.]

  KOTTWITZ [taken aback]: No, my Prince, that can’t be. What are you saying?

  HOHENZOLLERN: He wants to die?

  TRUCHSS: He should not . . . must not die!

  SEVERAL OFFICERS [pressing forward]: My Lord and Sovereign! Your Majesty! Hear us!

  PRINCE: Be silent! It is my inflexible will! I want to glorify the sacred laws of war which I have broken in full view of the army. I want to die a freely chosen death. How important can a small victory be for you, my brothers, which I perhaps might win from Wrangel? How can you compare this with my glorious triumph tomorrow morning over the most destructive enemies which we harbor in ourselves: defiance and arrogance! Let the foreigner who tries to subjugate us fall and may the people of Brandenburg assert their freedom on our maternal ground. For this earth is theirs and its meadows’ splendor belongs to them alone.

  KOTTWITZ [moved]: My son! My dearest friend! What can I call you now?

  TRUCHSS: Oh, God of the world.

  KOTTWITZ: Let me kiss your hand!

  [They press around him.]

  PRINCE [to the Elector]: With great emotion, I submit to you, my Lord, whom I was once privileged to call by a dearer name, a privilege I have frivolously thrown away. Forgive me if I served you too impetuously on that fateful day: death now washes me clean of all my guilt. Reconciled and cheerful, I freely accede to the verdict of your laws. So comfort me in turn with the knowledge that you no longer bear a grudge against me. And in this hour of farewell, grant me a sign of your grace to confirm that I’m forgiven.

  ELECTOR: Speak, young hero. What is it you wish? I pledge my word and my honor as a knight that whatever your wish may be, it shall be granted.

  PRINCE: Your Majesty, do not buy peace from Gustave Karl with the hand of your niece. Expel from the camp the Swedish go-between whose proposals rob you of your honor. Answer him with cannon shot instead.

  ELECTOR [kissing him on the forehead]: It shall be as you have asked. With this kiss, my son, I grant you your last wish. Why should there yet be one more sacrifice which was, in any case, torn from me only by the vicissitudes of war? From now on, every word you’ve spoken will flower into a victory which will crush the Swedish enemy. I’ll write King Gustave that Princess Natalia is Prince Friedrich of Homburg’s bride . . . the Prince who fell according to the law for the sake of Fehrbellin. Let the Swedish king fight for her on the field of battle where the Prince’s spirit will still march in the vanguard with the flags of Brandenburg, though he lies dead. [He kisses him once again and raises him.]

  PRINCE: Now you’ve given me my life again. And now I’ll pray for every blessing from above, for every glory that the Seraphim enthroned in clouds pour down so joyously upon the heads of heroes. Go and wage war, oh Lord, and conquer the entire world if it defies you. For you deserve such victory.

  ELECTOR: Guards! Take him back to prison.

  SCENE 8

  [Natalia and the Electress appear at the door, followed by ladies-in-waiting. The above.]

  NATALIA: Oh, mother! Why do you speak to me of what is proper? The most seemly act at such an hour is to love him . . . my dearest, most unfortunate friend!

  PRINCE [leaving]: Take me away!

  TRUCHSS [restraining him]: No, my Prince, you can’t do this.

  [Several officers block the way.]

  PRINCE: Take me away!

  HOHENZOLLERN: My Elector, can your heart . . . ?

  PRINCE [tearing himself free]: You tyrants! Do you want me to be dragged in chains to the place of execution? Go away! I have closed my accounts with life. [He leaves with the guards.]

  NATALIA [laying her head upon her aunt’s shoulder]: Oh, earth, take me to your bosom tool Why should I gaze at the sunlight any longer?

  SCENE 9

  [The above without the Prince of Homburg.]

  FIELD MARSHAL: Oh, God of the world! Did it have to come to this?

  [The Elector speaks secretly and urgently with an officer.]

  KOTTWITZ [in a cold voice]: My sovereign Lord and Master, are we now dismissed after all that’s passed?

  ELECTOR: No! Not yet. I’ll let you know when you’re dismissed. [He stares at him for a short while. Then he takes the papers which the page has brought from the table and turns to the Field Marshal.] Give this pass to the Swedish Count Horn. It is my cousin, the Prince’s last will which I am obliged to fulfill. The cease-fire will end in three days, and battle will commence. [Pause. He casts a look at the death warrant.] Well, judge for yourself, gentlemen. In the past year alone, the Prince of Homburg with his defiance and frivolity has cost me two of my most precious victories. At Fehrbellin he seriously interfered yet with a third one. Now that he’s passed through the schooling of these last few days, would you be prepared to risk a fourth with him?

  KOTTWITZ AND TRUCHSS [together]: What, my godlike, my divine . . .?

  ELECTOR: Are you willing? Do you dare?

  KOTTWITZ: By heaven, you could be standing at the edge of doom and the Prince wouldn’t lift a finger to help you; he wouldn’t save your life unless you gave the order.

  ELECTOR [tearing up the death warrant]: Well, friends, so come and follow me into the garden now.

  [They all leave.]

  SCENE 10

  Scene: The castle, with a ramp leading down into the garden as in Act One.

  [It is night again. The Prince of Homburg is being led blindfolded by Cavalry Captain Strantz through the lower garden gate. The Prince’s guard with its officers are present. In the distance, drums beating a funeral march are heard.]

  PRINCE: Now, immortality, you are totally mine! You are streaming toward me with the radiance of a thousand suns through the blindfold on my eyes. Wings are growing on my shoulders, and my spirit is already soaring through the calm ethereal spheres. And like a ship which, borne away by winds, sees the cheerful harbor disappear, so all of life is sinking away from me in twilight. I can still perceive colors and shapes, but everything beneath me is lying in a mist.

  [The Prince sits down on a bench which has been set up underneath an oak tree in the middle of the garden. Cavalry Captain Strantz moves away from him and looks up toward the ramp.]

  PRINCE: Oh, how wonderfully fragrant the violets are! Don’t you smell them?

  [Stran
tz returns to him.]

  STRANTZ: They are carnations and garden pinks.

  PRINCE: Garden pinks? How do they come to be growing here?

  STRANTZ: I don’t know. It seems a young girl has planted them here. May I give you a carnation?

  PRINCE: Thank you, friend. I will put it in water when I get home.

  SCENE 11

  [The Elector enters holding a laurel wreath about which is wound his golden chain. He is followed by the Electress, Princess Natalia, Field Marshal Dörfling, Colonel Kottwitz, Hohenzollern, Goltz, and so forth. Ladies-in-waiting, officers, and pages with torches appear on the ramp. Hohenzollern, carrying a scarf, appears at the balustrade and signals to Cavalry Captain Strantz, who then withdraws from the Prince and speaks in the background with the guards.]

  PRINCE: Friend, what is this radiance that’s spreading its light around me?

  STRANTZ [returning to him]: My Prince, will you kindly rise?

  PRINCE: What’s happening?

  STRANTZ: Nothing that should cause you fear. I merely wish to untie the blindfold on your eyes.

  PRINCE: Has the last hour of my suffering come?

  STRANTZ: Yes! Hail to you and accept all our blessings, for you are worthy of them.

  [The Elector gives the wreath on which the necklace hangs to the Princess, takes her by the hand, and escorts her down the ramp. Ladies and gentlemen follow. The Princess, surrounded by torches, steps in front of the Prince who looks up in amazement. She places the wreath on his head, hangs the chain around his neck, and presses his hand to her heart. The Prince faints.]

  NATALIA: Joy is killing him!

  HOHENZOLLERN [catching him]: Help!

  ELECTOR: Let the thunder of the cannon rouse him!

  [Cannon shot. A March. The castle is illuminated.]

  KOTTWITZ: Hail, hail to the Prince of Homburg!

  OFFICER: Hail! Hail! Hail!

  ALL: To the victor of the battle of Fehrbellin!

  [A moment of silence.]

  PRINCE: No, tell me, is it a dream?

  KOTTWITZ: A dream, what else?

  SEVERAL OFFICERS: Into the field of battle! Into the field!

  TRUCHSS: To the battle!

  FIELD MARSHAL: On to victory! On to victory!

  ALL: Into the dust with all the enemies of Brandenburg.

  CURTAIN

  Copyright © 1978 by Diana Stone Peters and Frederick G. Peters

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