| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: existence, yet unable to stir a limb in his behalf, alas! even this
insignificant portion of thy being, thy Clara, is, like thee, a captive, and,
separated from thee, consumes her expiring energies in the agonies of
death.--I hear a stealthy step,--a cough--Brackenburg,--'tis he!--Kind,
unhappy man, thy destiny remains ever the same; thy love opens to thee
the door at night, alas! to what a doleful meeting.
(Enter Brackenburg.) Thou com'st so pale, so terrified! Brackenburg!
What is it?
Brackenburg. I have sought thee through perils and circuitous paths. The
principal streets are occupied with troops;--through lanes and by-ways
have I stolen to thee!
Egmont |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: He can be tried only by his peers, by the assembled knights of his order.
Your own foul tongue and evil conscience betray you into this nonsense.
Vansen. Think you that I wish him ill? I would you were in the right. He is
an excellent gentleman. He once let off, with a sound drubbing, some
good friends of mine, who would else have been hanged. Now take
yourselves off! begone, I advise you! Yonder I see the patrol again
commencing their round. They do not look as if they would be willing to
fraternize with us over a glass. We must wait, and bide our time. I have a
couple of nieces and a gossip of a tapster; if after enjoying themselves in
their company, they are not tamed, they are regular wolves.
Scene II.--The Palace of Eulenberg, Residence of the Duke of Alva
Egmont |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Contrast by Royall Tyler: within but a few weeks of its first performance.
Tyler was apparently immediately attracted to the
theater, for he became a constant visitor before and
behind the curtain, and rapidly gained the friendship
of all the performers, particularly that of Wignell, the
low comedian of the company. He gave Wignell the
manuscript of the 'Contrast,' and on the 19th of May,
the same year, produced for that actor's benefit his
second play, 'May-day in Town, or New-York in an
Uproar,' a comic opera in two acts. He shortly after-
ward returned to his home at Boston, where, several
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