Knowledge house - Oscar Wilde - The Complete Works

O noble lion of war, that would not suffer

Injustice done in Italy!—he led

The very flower of chivalry against

That foul adulterous Lord of Rimini,

Giovanni Malatesta—whom God curse!

And was by him in treacherous ambush taken,

And like a villain, or a low-born knave,

Was by him on the public scaffold murdered.

guido [ clutching his dagger ]

Doth Malatesta live?

moranzone

No, he is dead.

guido

Did you say dead? O too swift runner, Death,

Couldst thou not wait for me a little space,

And I had done thy bidding!

moranzone [ clutching his wrist ]

Thou canst do it!

The man who sold thy father is alive.

·10· guido

Sold! was my father sold?

moranzone

Ay! trafficked for,

Like a vile chattel, for a price betrayed,

Bartered and bargained for in privy market

By one whom he had held his perfect friend,

One he had trusted, one he had well loved,

One whom by ties of kindness he had bound——

guido

And he lives

Who sold my father?

moranzone

I will bring you to him.

guido

So, Judas, thou art living! well, I will make

This world thy field of blood, so buy it straight-way,

For thou must hang there.

moranzone

Judas said you, boy?

Yes, Judas in his treachery, but still

·11· He was more wise than Judas was, and held

Those thirty silver pieces not enough.

guido

What got he for my father’s blood?

moranzone

What got he?

Why cities, fiefs, and principalities,

Vineyards, and lands.

guido

Of which he shall but keep

Six feet of ground to rot in. Where is he,

This damned villain, this foul devil? where?

Show me the man, and come he cased in steel,

In complete panoply and pride of war,

Ay, guarded by a thousand men-at-arms,

Yet I shall reach him through their spears, and feel

The last black drop of blood from his black heart

Crawl down my blade. Show me the man, I say,

And I will kill him.

·12· moranzone [ coldly ]

Fool, what revenge is there?

Death is the common heritage of all,

And death comes best when it comes suddenly.

[ Goes up close to Guido .]

Your father was betrayed, there is your cue;

For you shall sell the seller in his turn.

I will make you of his household, you shall sit

At the same board with him, eat of his bread——

guido

O bitter bread!

moranzone

Thy palate is too nice,

Revenge will make it sweet. Thou shalt o’ nights

Pledge him in wine, drink from his cup, and be

His intimate, so he will fawn on thee,

Love thee, and trust thee in all secret things.

If he bid thee be merry thou must laugh,

And if it be his humour to be sad

Thou shalt don sables. Then when the time is ripe——

[ Guido clutches his sword .]

·13· Nay, nay, I trust thee not; your hot young blood,

Undisciplined nature, and too violent rage

Will never tarry for this great revenge,

But wreck itself on passion.

guido

Thou knowest me not.

Tell me the man, and I in everything

Will do thy bidding.

moranzone

Well, when the time is ripe.

The victim trusting and the occasion sure,

I will by sudden secret messenger

Send thee a sign.

guido

How shall I kill him, tell me?

moranzone

That night thou shalt creep into his private chamber;

But if he sleep see that thou wake him first,

And hold thy hand upon his throat, ay! that way,

·14· Then having told him of what blood thou art,

Sprung from what father, and for what revenge,

Bid him to pray for mercy; when he prays,

Bid him to set a price upon his life,

And when he strips himself of all his gold

Tell him thou needest not gold, and hast not mercy,

And do thy business straight away. Swear to me

Thou wilt not kill him till I bid thee do it,

Or else I go to mine own house, and leave

Thee ignorant, and thy father unavenged.

guido

Now by my father’s sword——

moranzone

The common hangman

Brake that in sunder in the public square.

guido

Then by my father’s grave——

moranzone

What grave? what grave?

Your noble father lieth in no grave,

·15· I saw his dust strewn on the air, his ashes

Whirled through the windy streets like common straws

To plague a beggar’s eyesight, and his head,

That gentle head, set on the prison spike,

For the vile rabble in their insolence

To shoot their tongues at.

guido

Was it so indeed?

Then by my father’s spotless memory,

And by the shameful manner of his death,

And by the base betrayal by his friend,

For these at least remain, by these I swear

I will not lay my hand upon his life

Until you bid me, then—God help his soul,

For he shall die as never dog died yet.

And now, the sign, what is it?

moranzone

This dagger, boy;

It was your father’s.

guido

Oh, let me look at it!

I do remember now my reputed uncle,

·16· That good old husbandman I left at home,

Told me a cloak wrapped round me when a babe

Bare too such yellow leopards wrought in gold;

I like them best in steel, as they are here,

They suit my purpose better. Tell me, sir,

Have you no message from my father to me?

moranzone

Poor boy, you never saw that noble father,

For when by his false friend he had been sold,

Alone of all his gentlemen I escaped

To bear the news to Parma to the Duchess.

guido

Speak to me of my mother.

moranzone

When thy mother

Heard my black news, she fell into a swoon,

And, being with untimely travail seized—

Bare thee into the world before thy time,

And then her soul went heavenward, to wait

Thy father, at the gates of Paradise.

guido

A mother dead, a father sold and bartered!

·17· I seem to stand on some beleaguered wall,

And messenger comes after messenger

With a new tale of terror; give me breath,

Mine ears are tired.

moranzone

When thy mother died,

Fearing our enemies, I gave it out

Thou wert dead also, and then privily

Conveyed thee to an ancient servitor,

Who by Perugia lived; the rest thou knowest.

guido

Saw you my father afterwards?

moranzone

Ay! once;

In mean attire, like a vineyard dresser,

I stole to Rimini.

guido [ taking his hand ]

O generous heart!

moranzone

One can buy everything in Rimini,

And so I bought the gaolers! when your father

Heard that a man child had been born to him,

·18· His noble face lit up beneath his helm

Like a great fire seen far out at sea,

And taking my two hands, he bade me, Guido,

To rear you worthy of him; so I have reared you

To revenge his death upon the friend who sold him.

guido

Thou hast done well; I for my father thank thee.

And now his name?

moranzone

How you remind me of him,

You have each gesture that your father had.

guido

The traitor’s name?

moranzone

Thou wilt hear that anon;

The Duke and other nobles at the Court

Are coming hither.

guido

What of that? his name?

moranzone

Do they not seem a valiant company

Of honourable, honest gentlemen?

·19· guido

His name, milord?

[ Enter the Duke of Padua with Count Bardi, Maffio, Petrucci, and other gentlemen of his Court .]

moranzone [ quickly ]