Knowledge house - Oscar Wilde - The Complete Works

Poor castaways upon a lonely sea,

Dream of green fields and pleasant water-courses,

And then wake up with red thirst in their throats,

And die more miserably because sleep

Has cheated them: so they die cursing sleep

For having sent them dreams: I will not curse you

Though I am cast away upon the sea

Which men call Desolation.

·72· guido

O God, God!

duchess

But you will stay: listen, I love you, Guido.

[ She waits a little .]

Is echo dead, that when I say I love you

There is no answer?

guido

Everything is dead,

Save one thing only, which shall die to-night!

duchess

If you are going, touch me not, but go.

[ Exit Guido .]

Barrier! Barrier!

Why did he say there was a barrier?

There is no barrier between us two.

He lied to me, and shall I for that reason

Loathe what I love, and what I worshipped, hate?

I think we women do not love like that.

For if I cut his image from my heart,

My heart would, like a bleeding pilgrim, follow

·73· That image through the world, and call it back

With little cries of love.

[ Enter Duke equipped for the chase, with falconers and hounds .]

duke

Madam, you keep us waiting;

You keep my dogs waiting.

duchess

I will not ride to-day.

duke

How now, what’s this?

duchess

My Lord, I cannot go.

duke

What, pale face, do you dare to stand against me?

Why, I could set you on a sorry jade

And lead you through the town, till the low rabble

You feed toss up their hats and mock at you.

duchess

Have you no word of kindness ever for me?

·74· duke

I hold you in the hollow of my hand

And have no need on you to waste kind words.

duchess

Well, I will go.

duke [ slapping his boot with his whip ]

No, I have changed my mind,

You will stay here, and like a faithful wife

Watch from the window for our coming back.

Were it not dreadful if some accident

By chance should happen to your loving Lord?

Come, gentlemen, my hounds begin to chafe,

And I chafe too, having a patient wife.

Where is young Guido?

maffio

My liege, I have not seen him

For a full hour past.

duke

It matters not,

I dare say I shall see him soon enough.

Well, Madam, you will sit at home and spin.

I do protest, sirs, the domestic virtues

Are often very beautiful in others.

[ Exit Duke with his Court .]

·75· duchess

The stars have fought against me, that is all,

And thus to-night when my Lord lieth asleep,

Will I fall upon my dagger, and so cease.

My heart is such a stone nothing can reach it

Except the dagger’s edge: let it go there,

To find what name it carries: ay! to-night

Death will divorce the Duke; and yet to-night

He may die also, he is very old.

Why should he not die? Yesterday his hand

Shook with a palsy: men have died from palsy,

And why not he? Are there not fevers also,

Agues and chills, and other maladies

Most incident to old age?

No, no, he will not die, he is too sinful;

Honest men die before their proper time.

Good men will die: men by whose side the Duke

In all the sick pollution of his life

Seems like a leper: women and children die,

But the Duke will not die, he is too sinful.

Oh, can it be

There is some immortality in sin,

Which virtue has not? And does the wicked man

Draw life from what to other men were death,

·76· Like poisonous plants that on corruption live?

No, no, I think God would not suffer that:

Yet the Duke will not die: he is too sinful.

But I will die alone, and on this night

Grim Death shall be my bridegroom, and the tomb

My secret house of pleasure: well, what of that?

The world’s a graveyard, and we each, like coffins,

Within us bear a skeleton.

[ Enter Lord Moranzone all in black; he passes across the back of the stage looking anxiously about .]

moranzone

Where is Guido?

I cannot find him anywhere.

duchess [ catches sight of him ]

O God!

’Twas thou who took my love away from me.

moranzone [ with a look of joy ]

What, has he left you?

duchess

Nay, you know he has.

Oh, give him back to me, give him back, I say,

Or I will tear your body limb from limb,

·77· And to the common gibbet nail your head

Until the carrion crows have stripped it bare.

Better you had crossed a hungry lioness

Before you came between me and my love.

[ With more pathos .]

Nay, give him back, you know not how I love him.

Here by this chair he knelt a half hour since;

’Twas there he stood, and there he looked at me;

This is the hand he kissed, and these the ears

Into whose open portals he did pour

A tale of love so musical that all

The birds stopped singing! Oh, give him back to me.

moranzone

He does not love you, Madam.

duchess

May the plague

Wither the tongue that says so! Give him back.

moranzone

Madam, I tell you you will never see him,

Neither to-night, nor any other night.

duchess

What is your name?

·78· moranzone

My name? Revenge!

[ Exit .]

duchess

Revenge!

I think I never harmed a little child.

What should Revenge do coming to my door?

It matters not, for Death is there already,

Waiting with his dim torch to light my way.

’Tis true men hate thee, Death, and yet I think

Thou wilt be kinder to me than my lover,

And so dispatch the messengers at once,

Hurry the lazy steeds of lingering day,

And let the night, thy sister, come instead,

And drape the world in mourning; let the owl,

Who is thy minister, scream from his tower

And wake the toad with hooting, and the bat,

That is the slave of dim Persephone,

Wheel through the sombre air on wandering wing!

Tear up the shrieking mandrakes from the earth

And bid them make us music, and tell the mole

To dig deep down thy cold and narrow bed,

For I shall lie within thine arms to-night.

End of Act II.



·81· SCENE—A large corridor in the Ducal Palace: a window (L.C.) looks out on a view of Padua by moonlight: a staircase (R.C.) leads up to a door with a portière of crimson velvet, with the Duke’s arms embroidered in gold on it: on the lowest step of the staircase a figure draped in black is sitting: the hall is lit by an iron cresset filled with burning tow: thunder and lightning outside: the time is night.

[ Enter Guido through the window .]

guido

The wind is rising: how my ladder shook!

I thought that every gust would break the cords!

[ Looks out at the city .]

Christ! What a night:

Great thunder in the heavens, and wild lightnings

Striking from pinnacle to pinnacle

Across the city, till the dim houses seem

To shudder and to shake as each new glare

Dashes adown the street.

[ Passes across the stage to foot of staircase .]

·82· Ah! who art thou

That sittest on the stair, like unto Death

Waiting a guilty soul? [ A pause .]

Canst thou not speak?

Or has this storm laid palsy on thy tongue,

And chilled thy utterance?

[ The figure rises and takes off his mask .]

moranzone

Guido Ferranti,

Thy murdered father laughs for joy to-night.

guido [ confusedly ]