Page:The robbers - a tragedy (IA robberstragedy00schiiala).pdf/51

This page has been validated.
THE ROBBERS.
27

ther! Damnation! What thinkest thou, Moor? It drives one to madness!——

Moor.

What is the matter now?

Spiegelberg.

The matter!—read—read it yourself.—Our trade's at an end;—peace proclaimed in Germany[1];—the devil consume those priests!

Moor.

Peace in Germany!

Spiegelberg.

'Tis enough to make a man hang himself:—Club-law is gone for ever:—All fighting prohibited, on pain of death:—Death and fury! Moor, go hang yourself!—Pens must scribble, where swords hack'd before!

Moor.

(Throws away his sword.) Then let cowards

D 2
rule,
  1. ↑ The action of this play is supposed to have passed in the reign of the Emperor Maximilian, (grandfather of Charles V.) who in 1506 procured that great enactment of the Imperial Diet, which established a perpetual peace between all the different States that compose the Germanic body. Before his time, they were constantly at war with each other, a state of society favourable to every species of depredation and outrage.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.