Monologue

Butler Monologue from The Piccolomini: A Play

From The Piccolomini: A Play by Friedrich Schiller

male · defiant · 1:45 min

Ay? Then I repent me not of that fidelity Which for the length of forty years I held, If in my sixtieth year my good old name Can purchase for me a revenge so full. Start not at what I say, sir generals! My real motives--they concern not you. And you yourselves, I trust, could not expect That this your game had crooked my judgment--or That fickleness, quick blood, or such like cause, Has driven the old man from the track of honor, Which he so long had trodden. Come, my friends! I'm not thereto determined with less firmness, Because I know and have looked steadily At that on which I have determined. (ILLO: Say, And speak roundly, what are we to deem you?) A friend! I give you here my hand! I'm yours With all I have. Not only men, but money Will the duke want. Go, tell him, sirs! I've earned and laid up somewhat in his service, I lend it him; and is he my survivor, It has been already long ago bequeathed to him; He is my heir. For me, I stand alone Here in the world; naught know I of the feeling That binds the husband to a wife and children. My name dies with me, my existence ends.

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