Knowledge house - Oscar Wilde - The Complete Works

Ay, and has given us bread: do not forget the bread.

a soldier

Stand back, good people.

·124· second citizen

If we be good, why should we stand back?

tipstaff

Silence in the Court!

lord justice

May it please your Grace,

Is it your pleasure we proceed to trial

Of the Duke’s murder? [ Duchess bows .]

Set the prisoner forth.

What is thy name?

guido

It matters not, my lord.

lord justice

Guido Ferranti is thy name in Padua.

guido

A man may die as well under that name as any other.

lord justice

Thou art not ignorant

What dreadful charge men lay against thee here,

Namely, the treacherous murder of thy Lord,

·125· Simone Gesso, Duke of Padua;

What dost thou say in answer?

guido

I say nothing.

lord justice [ rising ]

Guido Ferranti——

moranzone [ stepping from the crowd ]

Tarry, my Lord Justice.

lord justice

Who art thou that bid’st justice tarry, sir?

moranzone

So be it justice it can go its way;

But if it be not justice——

lord justice

Who is this?

count bardi

A very noble gentleman, and well known

To the late Duke.

lord justice

Sir, thou art come in time

To see the murder of the Duke avenged.

There stands the man who did this heinous thing.

moranzone

·126· My lord,

I ask again what proof have ye?

lord justice [ holding up the dagger ]

This dagger,

Which from his blood-stained hands, itself all blood,

Last night the soldiers seized: what further proof

Need we indeed?

moranzone [ takes the dagger and approaches the Duchess ]

Saw I not such a dagger

Hang from your Grace’s girdle yesterday?

[ The Duchess shudders and makes no answer .]

Ah! my Lord Justice, may I speak a moment

With this young man, who in such peril stands?

lord justice

Ay, willingly, my lord, and may you turn him

To make a full avowal of his guilt.

[ Lord Moranzone goes over to Guido, who stands R. and clutches him by the hand .]

·127· moranzone [ in a low voice ]

She did it! Nay, I saw it in her eyes.

Boy, dost thou think I’ll let thy father’s son

Be by this woman butchered to his death?

Her husband sold your father, and the wife

Would sell the son in turn.

guido

Lord Moranzone,

I alone did this thing: be satisfied,

My father is avenged.

lord justice

Doth he confess?

guido

My lord, I do confess

That foul unnatural murder has been done.

first citizen

Why, look at that: he has a pitiful heart, and does not like murder; they will let him go for that.

lord justice

Say you no more?

guido

My lord, I say this also,

That to spill human blood is deadly sin.

·128· second citizen

Marry, he should tell that to the headsman: ’tis a good sentiment.

guido

Lastly, my lord, I do entreat the Court

To give me leave to utter openly

The dreadful secret of this mystery,

And to point out the very guilty one

Who with this dagger last night slew the Duke.

lord justice

Thou hast leave to speak.

duchess [ rising ]

I say he shall not speak:

What need have we of further evidence?

Was he not taken in the house at night

In Guilt’s own bloody livery?

lord justice [ showing her the statute ]

Your Grace

Can read the law.

duchess [ waiving book aside ]

Bethink you, my Lord Justice,

Is it not very like that such a one

May, in the presence of the people here,

·129· Utter some slanderous word against my Lord,

Against the city, or the city’s honour,

Perchance against myself.

lord justice

My liege, the law.

duchess

He shall not speak, but, with gags in his mouth,

Shall climb the ladder to the bloody block.

lord justice

The law, my liege.

duchess

We are not bound by law,

But with it we bind others.

moranzone

My Lord Justice,

Thou wilt not suffer this injustice here.

lord justice

The Court needs not thy voice, Lord Moranzone.

Madam, it were a precedent most evil

To wrest the law from its appointed course,

For, though the cause be just, yet anarchy

Might on this licence touch these golden scales

And unjust causes unjust victories gain.

·130· count bardi

I do not think your Grace can stay the law.

duchess

Ay, it is well to preach and prate of law:

Methinks, my haughty lords of Padua,

If ye are hurt in pocket or estate,

So much as makes your monstrous revenues

Less by the value of one ferry toll,

Ye do not wait the tedious law’s delay

With such sweet patience as ye counsel me.

count bardi

Madam, I think you wrong our nobles here.

duchess

I think I wrong them not. Which of you all

Finding a thief within his house at night,

With some poor chattel thrust into his rags,

Will stop and parley with him? do ye not

Give him unto the officer and his hook

To be dragged gaolwards straightway?

And so now,

Had ye been men, finding this fellow here,

With my Lord’s life still hot upon his hands,

·131· Ye would have haled him out into the court,

And struck his head off with an axe.

guido

O God!

duchess

Speak, my Lord Justice.

lord justice

Your Grace, it cannot be:

The laws of Padua are most certain here:

And by those laws the common murderer even

May with his own lips plead, and make defence.

duchess

This is no common murderer, Lord Justice,

But a great outlaw, and a most vile traitor,

Taken in open arms against the state.

For he who slays the man who rules a state

Slays the state also, widows every wife,

And makes each child an orphan, and no less

Is to be held a public enemy,

Than if he came with mighty ordonnance,

And all the spears of Venice at his back,

To beat and batter at our city gates—

·132· Nay, is more dangerous to our commonwealth,

For walls and gates, bastions and forts, and things

Whose common elements are wood and stone

May be raised up, but who can raise again

The ruined body of my murdered lord,

And bid it live and laugh?

maffio

Now by Saint Paul

I do not think that they will let him speak.

jeppo vitellozzo

There is much in this, listen.

duchess

Wherefore now,

Throw ashes on the head of Padua,

With sable banners hang each silent street,

Let every man be clad in solemn black;

But ere we turn to these sad rites of mourning

Let us bethink us of the desperate hand

Which wrought and brought this ruin on our state,

And straightway pack him to that narrow house,

Where no voice is, but with a little dust

Death fills right up the lying mouths of men.

·133· guido

Unhand me, knaves! I tell thee, my Lord Justice,

Thou mightst as well bid the untrammelled ocean,

The winter whirlwind, or the Alpine storm,

Not roar their will, as bid me hold my peace!

Ay! though ye put your knives into my throat,

Each grim and gaping wound shall find a tongue,

And cry against you.

lord justice

Sir, this violence

Avails you nothing; for save the tribunal

Give thee a lawful right to open speech,

Naught that thou sayest can be credited.

[ The Duchess smiles and Guido falls back with a gesture of despair .]