Page:Wallenstein, a drama in 2 parts - Schiller (tr. Coleridge) (1800).djvu/112

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90

THE PICCOLOMINI, OR THE

SCENE VII.

Countess (returns)Thekla.

COUNTESS.

Fie, lady niece! to throw yourself upon him,

Like a poor gift to one who cares not for it,
And so must be flung after him! For you,
Duke Friedland's only child, I should have thought,
It had been more beseeming to have shewn yourself
More chary of your person.

THEKLA (rising)

And what mean you?

DUCHESS.

I mean, niece, that you should not have forgotten

Who you are, and who he is. But perchance
That never once occurr'd to you.

THEKLA.

What then?

COUNTESS.

That you're the daughter of the Prince Duke Friedland.

THEKLA.

Well—and what farther?

DUCHESS.

What? A pretty question!

THEKLA.

He was born that which we have but become.

He's of an ancient Lombard family,
Son of a reigning Princess.

COUNTESS.