Don Carlos

Friedrich Schiller

Friedrich Schiller

Don Carlos: A Play

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

PHILIP THE SECOND, King of Spain.

DON CARLOS, Prince, Son of Philip.

ALEXANDER FARNESE, Prince of Parma.

MARQUIS DE POSA.

DUKE OF ALVA.

Grandees of Spain:

COUNT LERMA, Colonel of the Body Guard,

DUKE OF FERIA, Knight of the Golden Fleece,

DUKE OF MEDINA SIDONIA, Admiral,

DON RAIMOND DE TAXIS, Postmaster-General,

DOMINGO, Confessor to the King.

GRAND INQUISITOR of Spain.

PRIOR of a Carthusian Convent.

PAGE of the Queen.

DON LOUIS MERCADO, Physician to the Queen.

ELIZABETH DE VALOIS, Queen of Spain.

INFANTA CLARA FARNESE, a Child three years of age.

DUCHESS D'OLIVAREZ, Principal Attendant on the Queen.

Ladies Attendant on the Queen:

MARCHIONESS DE MONDECAR,

PRINCESS EBOLI,

COUNTESS FUENTES,

Several Ladies, Nobles, Pages, Officers of the Body-Guard, and mute Characters.

ACT I

SCENE I

The Royal Gardens in Aranjuez.

CARLOS and DOMINGO.

DOMINGO

Our pleasant sojourn in Aranjuez

Is over now, and yet your highness quits

These joyous scenes no happier than before.

Our visit hath been fruitless. Oh, my prince,

Break this mysterious and gloomy silence!

Open your heart to your own father's heart!

A monarch never can too dearly buy

The peace of his own son – his only son.

[CARLOS looks on the ground in silence.

Is there one dearest wish that bounteous Heaven

Hath e'er withheld from her most favored child?

I stood beside, when in Toledo's walls

The lofty Charles received his vassals' homage,

When conquered princes thronged to kiss his hand,

And there at once six mighty kingdoms fell

In fealty at his feet: I stood and marked

The young, proud blood mount to his glowing cheek,

I saw his bosom swell with high resolves,

His eye, all radiant with triumphant pride,

Flash through the assembled throng; and that same eye

Confessed, "Now am I wholly satisfied!"

[CARLOS turns away.

This silent sorrow, which for eight long moons

Hath hung its shadows, prince, upon your brow —

The mystery of the court, the nation's grief —

Hath cost your father many a sleepless night,

And many a tear of anguish to your mother.

CARLOS (turning hastily round)

My mother! Grant, O heaven, I may forget

How she became my mother!

DOMINGO

Gracious prince!

CARLOS (passing his hands thoughtfully over his brow)

Alas! alas! a fruitful source of woe

Have mothers been to me. My youngest act,

When first these eyes beheld the light of day,

Destroyed a mother.

DOMINGO

Is it possible

That this reproach disturbs your conscience, prince?

CARLOS

And my new mother! Hath she not already

Cost me my father's heart? Scarce loved at best.

My claim to some small favor lay in this —

I was his only child! 'Tis over! She

Hath blest him with a daughter – and who knows

What slumbering ills the future hath in store?

DOMINGO

You jest, my prince. All Spain adores its queen.

Shall it be thought that you, of all the world,

Alone should view her with the eyes of hate —

Gaze on her charms, and yet be coldly wise?

How, prince? The loveliest lady of her time,

A queen withal, and once your own betrothed?

No, no, impossible – it cannot be!

Where all men love, you surely cannot hate.

Carlos could never so belie himself.

I prithee, prince, take heed she do not learn

That she hath lost her son's regard. The news

Would pain her deeply.

CARLOS.В В В В В В В В В В В  Ay, sir! think you so?

DOMINGO

Your highness doubtless will remember how,

At the late tournament in Saragossa,

A lance's splinter struck our gracious sire.

The queen, attended by her ladies, sat

High in the centre gallery of the palace,

And looked upon the fight. A cry arose,

"The king! he bleeds!" Soon through the general din,

A rising murmur strikes upon her ear.

"The prince – the prince!" she cries, and forward rushed,

As though to leap down from the balcony,

When a voice answered, "No, the king himself!"

"Then send for his physicians!" sh