Complete Plays. Оскар Уайльд

Complete Plays - Оскар Уайльд


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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?

      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

       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

       Better perhaps

       That you had done so! May be better still

       I’d not been born to this distressful world.

      MORANZONE

       Farewell!

      GUIDO

       Farewell! Some day, Lord Moranzone,

       You will understand my vengeance.

      MORANZONE

       Never, boy.

       [Gets out of window and exit by rope ladder.]

      GUIDO

       Father, I think thou knowest my resolve,

       And with this nobler vengeance art content.

       Father, I think in letting this man live

       That I am doing what thou wouldst have done.

       Father, I know not if a human voice

       Can pierce the iron gateway of the dead,

       Or if the dead are set in ignorance

       Of what we do, or do not, for their sakes.

       And yet I feel a presence in the air,

       There is a shadow standing at my side,

       And ghostly kisses seem to touch my lips,

       And leave them holier. [Kneels down.]

       O father, if ‘tis thou,

       Canst thou not burst through the decrees of death,

       And if corporeal semblance show thyself,

       That I may touch thy hand!

       No, there is nothing. [Rises.]

       ‘Tis the night that cheats us with its phantoms,

       And, like a puppet-master, makes us think

       That things are real which are not. It grows late.

       Now must I to my business.

       [Pulls out a letter from his doublet and reads it.]

       When he wakes,

       And sees this letter, and the dagger with it,

       Will he not have some loathing for his life,

       Repent, perchance, and lead a better life,

       Or will he mock because a young man spared

       His natural enemy? I do not care.

       Father, it is thy bidding that I do,

       Thy bidding, and the bidding of my love

       Which teaches me to know thee as thou art.

       [Ascends staircase stealthily, and just as he reaches out his hand to draw back the curtain the Duchess appears all in white. GUIDO starts back.]

      DUCHESS

       Guido! what do you here so late?

      GUIDO

       O white and spotless angel of my life,

       Sure thou hast come from Heaven with a message

       That mercy is more noble than revenge?

      DUCHESS

       There is no barrier between us now.

      GUIDO

       None, love, nor shall be.

      DUCHESS

       I have seen to that.

      GUIDO

       Tarry here for me.

      DUCHESS

       No, you are not going?

       You will not leave me as you did before?

      GUIDO

       I will return within a moment’s space,

       But first I must repair to the Duke’s chamber,

       And leave this letter and this dagger there,

       That when he wakes -

      DUCHESS

       When who wakes?

      GUIDO

       Why, the Duke.

      DUCHESS

       He will not wake again.

      GUIDO

       What, is he dead?

      DUCHESS

       Ay! he is dead.

      GUIDO

       O God! how wonderful

       Are all thy secret ways! Who would have said

       That on this very night, when I had yielded

       Into thy hands the vengeance that is thine,

       Thou with thy finger wouldst have touched the man,

       And bade him come before thy judgment seat.

      DUCHESS

       I have just killed him.

      GUIDO

       [in horror] Oh!

      DUCHESS

       He was asleep;

       Come closer, love, and I will tell you all.

       I had resolved to kill myself tonight.

       About an hour ago I waked from sleep,

       And took my dagger from beneath my pillow,

       Where I had hidden it to serve my need,

       And drew it from the sheath, and felt the edge,

       And thought of you, and how I loved you, Guido,

       And turned to fall upon it, when I marked

       The old man sleeping, full of years and sin;

       There lay he muttering curses in his sleep,

       And as I looked upon his evil face

       Suddenly like a flame there flashed across me,

       There is the barrier which Guido spoke of:

       You said there lay a barrier between us,

       What barrier but he? -

      


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