Ay! are you sure of that? (BUTLER: I read the letter.) And so did I--but the contents were different. [BUTLER is suddenly struck. By chance I'm in possession of that letter-- Can leave it to your own eyes to convince you. [He gives him the letter. (BUTLER: Ha! what is this?) I fear me, Colonel Butler, An infamous game have they been playing with you. The duke, you say, impelled you to this measure? Now, in this letter, talks he in contempt Concerning you; counsels the minister To give sound chastisement to your conceit, For so he calls it. [BUTLER reads through the letter; his knees tremble, he seizes a chair, and sinks clown in it. You have no enemy, no persecutor; There's no one wishes ill to you. Ascribe The insult you received to the duke only. His aim is clear and palpable. He wished To tear you from your emperor: he hoped To gain from your revenge what he well knew (What your long tried fidelity convinced him) He ne'er could dare expect from your calm reason. A blind tool would he make you, in contempt Use you, as means of most abandoned ends. He has gained his point. Too well has he succeeded In luring you away from that good path On which you had been journeying forty years! BUTLER (his voice trembling). Can e'er the emperor's majesty forgive me?

Octavio Piccolomini Monologue from The Death of Wallenstein

Rehearse Octavio Piccolomini's monologue