S. T. Coleridge - The d**h of Wallenstein (Act 4 Scene 12) lyrics

THEKLA. His spirit 'tis that calls me: 'tis the troop Of his true followers, who offered up Themselves to avenge his d**h: and they accuse me Of an ignoble loitering—they would not Forsake their leader even in his d**h; they died for him, And shall I live? For me too was that laurel garland twined That decks his bier. Life is an empty casket: I throw it from me. Oh, my only hope; To die beneath the hoofs of trampling steeds— That is a lot of heroes upon earth!   [Exit THEKLA. [10] (The Curtain drops.) Footnotes 10 The soliloquy of Thekla consists in the original of six-and-twenty lines twenty of which are in rhymes of irregular recurrence. I thought it prudent to abridge it. Indeed the whole scene between Thekla and Lady Neubrunn might, perhaps, have been omitted without injury to the play.—C.