Knowledge house - Oscar Wilde - The Complete Works

What, art thou here?

moranzone

Ay, waiting for your coming.

guido [ looking away from him ]

I did not think to see you, but am glad,

That you may know the thing I mean to do.

moranzone

First, I would have you know my well-laid plans;

Listen: I have set horses at the gate

Which leads to Parma: when you have done your business

We will ride hence, and by to-morrow night——

·83· guido

It cannot be.

moranzone

Nay, but it shall.

guido

Listen, Lord Moranzone,

I am resolved not to kill this man.

moranzone

Surely my ears are traitors, speak again:

It cannot be but age has dulled my powers,

I am an old man now: what did you say?

You said that with that dagger in your belt

You would avenge your father’s bloody murder;

Did you not say that?

guido

No, my lord, I said

I was resolved not to kill the Duke.

moranzone

You said not that; it is my senses mock me;

Or else this midnight air o’ercharged with storm

Alters your message in the giving it.

guido

Nay, you heard rightly; I’ll not kill this man.

·84· moranzone

What of thine oath, thou traitor, what of thine oath?

guido

I am resolved not to keep that oath.

moranzone

What of thy murdered father?

guido

Dost thou think

My father would be glad to see me coming,

This old man’s blood still hot upon mine hands?

moranzone

Ay! he would laugh for joy.

guido

I do not think so,

There is better knowledge in the other world;

Vengeance is God’s, let God himself revenge.

moranzone

Thou art God’s minister of vengeance.

guido

No!

God hath no minister but his own hand.

I will not kill this man.

·85· moranzone

Why are you here,

If not to kill him, then?

guido

Lord Moranzone,

I purpose to ascend to the Duke’s chamber,

And as he lies asleep lay on his breast

The dagger and this writing; when he awakes

Then he will know who held him in his power

And slew him not: this is the noblest vengeance

Which I can take.

moranzone

You will not slay him?

guido

No.

moranzone

Ignoble son of a noble father,

Who sufferest this man who sold that father

To live an hour.

guido

’Twas thou that hindered me;

I would have killed him in the open square,

The day I saw him first.

·86· moranzone

It was not yet time;

Now it is time, and, like some green-faced girl,

Thou pratest of forgiveness.

guido

No! revenge:

The right revenge my father’s son should take.

moranzone

You are a coward,

Take out the knife, get to the Duke’s chamber,

And bring me back his heart upon the blade.

When he is dead, then you can talk to me

Of noble vengeances.

guido

Upon thine honour,

And by the love thou bearest my father’s name,

Dost thou think my father, that great gentleman,

That generous soldier, that most chivalrous lord,

Would have crept at night-time, like a common thief,

And stabbed an old man sleeping in his bed,

However he had wronged him: tell me that.

moranzone [ after some hesitation ]

You have sworn an oath, see that you keep that oath.

·87· Boy, do you think I do not know your secret,

Your traffic with the Duchess?

guido

Silence, liar!

The very moon in heaven is not more chaste,

Nor the white stars so pure.

moranzone

And yet, you love her;

Weak fool, to let love in upon your life,

Save as a plaything.

guido

You do well to talk:

Within your veins, old man, the pulse of youth

Throbs with no ardour. Your eyes full of rheum

Have against Beauty closed their filmy doors,

And your clogged ears, losing their natural sense,

Have shut you from the music of the world.

You talk of love! You know not what it is.

moranzone

Oh, in my time, boy, have I walked i’ the moon,

Swore I would live on kisses and on blisses,

Swore I would die for love, and did not die,

·88· Wrote love bad verses; ay, and sung them badly,

Like all true lovers: Oh, I have done the tricks!

I know the partings and the chamberings;

We are all animals at best, and love

Is merely passion with a holy name.

guido

Now then I know you have not loved at all.

Love is the sacrament of life; it sets

Virtue where virtue was not; cleanses men

Of all the vile pollutions of this world;

It is the fire which purges gold from dross,

It is the fan which winnows wheat from chaff,

It is the spring which in some wintry soil

Makes innocence to blossom like a rose.

The days are over when God walked with men,

But Love, which is his image, holds his place.

When a man loves a woman, then he knows

God’s secret, and the secret of the world.

There is no house so lowly or so mean,

Which, if their hearts be pure who live in it,

Love will not enter; but if bloody murder

Knock at the Palace gate and is let in,

Love like a wounded thing creeps out and dies.

·89· This is the punishment God sets on sin.

The wicked cannot love.

[ A groan comes from the Duke’s chamber .]

Ah! What is that?

Do you not hear? ’Twas nothing.

So I think

That it is woman’s mission by their love

To save the souls of men: and loving her,

My Lady, my white Beatrice, I begin

To see a nobler and a holier vengeance

In letting this man live, than doth reside

In bloody deeds o’ night, stabs in the dark,

And young hands clutching at a palsied throat.

It was, I think, for love’s sake that Lord Christ,

Who was indeed himself incarnate Love,

Bade every man forgive his enemy.

moranzone [ sneeringly ]

That was in Palestine, not Padua;

And said for saints: I have to do with men.

guido

It was for all time said.

moranzone

And your white Duchess,

What will she do to thank you?

·90· guido

Alas, I will not see her face again.

’Tis but twelve hours since I parted from her,

So suddenly, and with such violent passion,

That she has shut her heart against me now:

No, I will never see her.

moranzone

What will you do?

guido

After that I have laid the dagger there,

Get hence to-night from Padua.

moranzone

And then?

guido

I will take service with the Doge at Venice,

And bid him pack me straightway to the wars,

And there I will, being now sick of life,

Throw that poor life against some desperate spear.

[ A groan from the Duke’s chamber again .]

Did you not hear a voice?

·91· moranzone

I always hear,

From the dim confines of some sepulchre,

A voice that cries for vengeance. We waste time,

It will be morning soon; are you resolved

You will not kill the Duke?

guido

I am resolved.

moranzone

O wretched father, lying unavenged.

guido

More wretched, were thy son a murderer.

moranzone

Why, what is life?

guido

I do not know, my lord,

I did not give it, and I dare not take it.

moranzone

I do not thank God often; but I think

I thank him now that I have got no son!

And you, what bastard blood flows in your veins

·92· That when you have your enemy in your grasp

You let him go! I would that I had left you

With the dull hinds that reared you.

guido