Knowledge house - Oscar Wilde - The Complete Works

Oscar Wilde: The Complete works

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O S C A R

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p l a y s

Vera. Vera, or, The Nihilists. A Drama in a Prologue and Four Acts by Oscar Wilde London: Ranken & Co., 1880 [The text follows the 1927 Methuen & Co. edition.] contents.  Prologue. First Act. Second Act. Third Act. Fourth Act. the persons of the prologue. peter sabouroff, an Innkeeper. vera sabouroff, his Daughter. michael, a Peasant. colonel kotemkin. Scene Russia Time 1795 the persons of the play. ivan the czar. prince paul maraloffski, Prime Minister of Russia. prince petrovitch. count rouvaloff. marquis de poivrard. baron raff. general kotemkin. a page. nihilists. peter tchernavitch, President of the Nihilists. michael. alexis ivanacievitch, known as a Student of Medicine. professor marfa. vera sabouroff. Soldiers, Conspirators, &c. Scene Moscow Time 1800

The Duchess of Padua. The Duchess of Padua. by Oscar Wilde Privately printed as manuscript, 1883; premiered January 26th, 1891 at the Broadway Theatre, New York [The text follows the 1909 Methuen & Co. edition.] contents.  Act I. Act II. Act III. Act IV. Act V.

Lady Windermere’s Fan.

A Woman of No Importance.

The Importance of Being Earnest.

An Ideal Husband.

Salomé. [French] [English]

La Sainte Courtisane.

A Florentine Tragedy.

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n o v e l

The Picture of Dorian Gray.

[1890 magazine publication]

[1891 book publication]

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s t o r i e s

The Happy Prince and Other Tales.

The Portrait of Mr W. H. [1889] [1921]

Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime and Other Stories.

A House of Pomegranates.

Poems in Prose.

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p o e m s

Ravenna.

Poems. [1881]

The Sphinx.

The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

Uncollected Poems.

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e s s a y s

Intentions.

The Soul of Man under Socialism.

De Profundis.

Lectures, Essays, and Criticism.

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r e v i e w s

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l e t t e r s

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index

for iris r.

A Drama

in a Prologue and Four Acts

by

Oscar Wilde

London: Ranken & Co., 1880

[The text follows the

1927 Methuen & Co. edition.]

contents.



Prologue.

First Act.

Second Act.

Third Act.

Fourth Act.

the persons of the prologue.

peter sabouroff, an Innkeeper.

vera sabouroff, his Daughter.

michael, a Peasant.

colonel kotemkin.

Scene Russia

Time 1795

the persons of the play.

ivan the czar.

prince paul maraloffski, Prime Minister of Russia.

prince petrovitch.

count rouvaloff.

marquis de poivrard.

baron raff.

general kotemkin.

a page.

nihilists.

peter tchernavitch, President of the Nihilists.

michael.

alexis ivanacievitch, known as a Student of Medicine.

professor marfa.

vera sabouroff.

Soldiers, Conspirators, &c.

Scene Moscow

Time 1800

SCENE—A Russian Inn.

[ Large door opening on snowy landscape at back of stage .]

[ Peter Sabouroff and Michael .]

peter

[ Warming his hands at a stove .] Has Vera not come back yet, Michael?

michael

No, Father Peter, not yet; ’tis a good three miles to the post office, and she has to milk the cows besides, and that dun one is a rare plaguey creature for a wench to handle.

peter

Why didn’t you go with her, you young fool? she’ll never love you unless you are always at her heels; women like to be bothered.

michael

She says I bother her too much already, Father Peter, and I fear she’ll never love me after all.

·2· peter

Tut, tut, boy, why shouldn’t she? you’re young and wouldn’t be ill-favoured either, had God or thy mother given thee another face. Aren’t you one of Prince Maraloffski’s gamekeepers; and haven’t you got a good grass farm, and the best cow in the village? What more does a girl want?

michael

But Vera, Father Peter——

peter

Vera, my lad, has got too many ideas; I don’t think much of ideas myself; I’ve got on well enough in life without ’em; why shouldn’t my children? There’s Dmitri! could have stayed here and kept the inn; many a young lad would have jumped at the offer in these hard times; but he, scatter-brained featherhead of a boy, must needs go off to Moscow to study the law! What does he want knowing about the law! let a man do his duty, say I, and no one will trouble him.

michael

Ay! but, Father Peter, they say a good lawyer can break the law as often as he likes, and no one can say him nay.

·3· peter

That is about all they are good for; and there he stays, and has not written a line to us for four months now—a good son that, eh?

michael

Come, come, Father Peter, Dmitri’s letters must have gone astray—perhaps the new postman can’t read; he looks stupid enough, and Dmitri, why, he was the best fellow in the village. Do you remember how he shot the bear at the barn in the great winter?

peter

Ay, it was a good shot; I never did a better myself.

michael

And as for dancing, he tired out three fiddlers Christmas come two years.

peter

Ay, ay, he was a merry lad. It is the girl that has the seriousness—she goes about as solemn as a priest for days at a time.

michael

Vera is always thinking of others.

·4· peter

There is her mistake, boy. Let God and our little Father look to the world. It is none of my work to mend my neighbour’s thatch. Why, last winter old Michael was frozen to death in his sleigh in the snowstorm, and his wife and children starved afterwards when the hard times came; but what business was it of mine? I didn’t make the world. Let God and the Czar look to it. And then the blight came, and the black plague with it, and the priests couldn’t bury the people fast enough, and they lay dead on the roads—men and women both. But what business was it of mine? I didn’t make the world. Let God and the Czar look to it. Or two autumns ago, when the river overflowed on a sudden, and the children’s school was carried away and drowned every girl and boy in it. I didn’t make the world—let God and the Czar look to it.

michael

But, Father Peter——

peter

No, no, boy; no man could live if he took his neighbour’s pack on his shoulders. [ Enter Vera in peasant’s dress .] Well, my girl, you’ve been long enough away—where is the letter?

·5· vera

There is none to-day, Father.

peter

I knew it.

vera

But there will be one to-morrow, Father.

peter

Curse him, for an ungrateful son.

vera

Oh, Father, don’t say that; he must be sick.

peter

Ay! sick of profligacy, perhaps.

vera

How dare you say that of him, Father? You know that is not true.

peter

Where does the money go, then? Michael, listen. I gave Dmitri half his mother’s fortune to bring with him to pay the lawyer folk of Moscow. He has only written three times, and every time for more money. He got it, not at my wish, but at hers [ pointing to Vera ], and now ·6· for five months, close on six almost, we have heard nothing from him.