We give you two hours to
consider
it.
World's Greatest Books - Volume 17 - Poetry and Drama
And that wild mob moving towards us?
LERSE (_entering_): The rebel peasants. Back to the castle! They
have dealt horribly with the noblest men!
GOETZ: On my own soil I shall not try to evade the rabble.
[_Enter_ STUMPF, KOHL, SIEVERS, _and armed peasants_.
STUMPF: We come to ask you, brave Goetz, to be our captain.
GOETZ: What! Me? To break my oath? Stumpf, I thought you were a
friend! Even if I were free, and you wanted to carry on as you did at
Weinsberg, raving and burning, and murdering, I'd rather be killed
than be your captain!
STUMPF: If we had a leader of authority, such things would not
happen. The princes and all Germany would thank you.
SIEVERS: You must be our captain, or you will have to defend your
own skin.
We give you two hours to consider it.
GOETZ: Why consider? I can decide now as well as later. Will you
desist from your misdeeds, and act like decent folk who know what
they want? Then I shall help you with your claims, and be your captain
for four weeks. Now, come! [_Exeunt. _
SCENE II. --_Landscape, with village and castle in distance_. GOETZ
_and_ GEORGE.
GEORGE: I beseech you, leave this infamous mob of robbers and
incendiaries.
GOETZ: We have done some good and saved many a convent, many a life.
GEORGE: Oh, sir, I beg you to leave them at once, before they drag
you away with them as prisoner, instead of following you as captain!
(_Flames are seen rising from the distant village_. ) See there! A new
crime!
LERSE (_entering_): The rebel peasants. Back to the castle! They
have dealt horribly with the noblest men!
GOETZ: On my own soil I shall not try to evade the rabble.
[_Enter_ STUMPF, KOHL, SIEVERS, _and armed peasants_.
STUMPF: We come to ask you, brave Goetz, to be our captain.
GOETZ: What! Me? To break my oath? Stumpf, I thought you were a
friend! Even if I were free, and you wanted to carry on as you did at
Weinsberg, raving and burning, and murdering, I'd rather be killed
than be your captain!
STUMPF: If we had a leader of authority, such things would not
happen. The princes and all Germany would thank you.
SIEVERS: You must be our captain, or you will have to defend your
own skin.
We give you two hours to consider it.
GOETZ: Why consider? I can decide now as well as later. Will you
desist from your misdeeds, and act like decent folk who know what
they want? Then I shall help you with your claims, and be your captain
for four weeks. Now, come! [_Exeunt. _
SCENE II. --_Landscape, with village and castle in distance_. GOETZ
_and_ GEORGE.
GEORGE: I beseech you, leave this infamous mob of robbers and
incendiaries.
GOETZ: We have done some good and saved many a convent, many a life.
GEORGE: Oh, sir, I beg you to leave them at once, before they drag
you away with them as prisoner, instead of following you as captain!
(_Flames are seen rising from the distant village_. ) See there! A new
crime!
