Oscar Wilde: The Complete Works. Knowledge house
thy left! Thy feet are pierced with their iron. When thou wert athirst thou callest on the priests for water, and they gave thee bitter drink. They thrust a sword into thy side. They mocked thee in thine agony of age on age. Here, on thy altar, O Liberty, do I dedicate myself to thy service; do with me as thou wilt! [Brandishing dagger.] The end has come now, and by thy sacred wounds, O crucified mother, O Liberty, I swear that Russia shall be saved!
Act-Drop.
·115· Fourth Act.
SCENE—Antechamber of the Czar’s private room. Large window at the back, with drawn curtains over it.
Present—Prince Petrovitch, Baron Raff, Marquis de Poivrard, Count Rouvaloff.
prince petrovitch
He is beginning well, this young Czar.
baron raff
[Shrugs his shoulders.] All young Czars do begin well.
count r.
And end badly.
marq. de poiv.
Well, I have no right to complain. He has done me one good service, at any rate.
prince petrovitch
Cancelled your appointment to Archangel, I suppose?
·116· marq. de poiv.
Yes; my head wouldn’t have been safe there for an hour.
[Enter General Kotemkin.]
baron raff
Ah! General, any more news of our romantic Emperor?
gen. kotemkin
You are quite right to call him romantic, Baron; a week ago I found him amusing himself in a garret with a company of strolling players; to-day his whim is all the convicts in Siberia are to be recalled, and political prisoners, as he calls them, amnestied.
prince petrovitch
Political prisoners! Why, half of them are no better than common murderers!
count r.
And the other half much worse?
baron raff
Oh, you wrong them, surely, Count. Wholesale trade has always been more respectable than retail.
·117· count r.
But he is really too romantic. He objected yesterday to my having the monopoly of the salt tax. He said the people had a right to have cheap salt.
marq. de poiv.
Oh, that’s nothing; but he actually disapproved of a State banquet every night because there is a famine in the Southern provinces. [The young Czar enters unobserved, and overhears the rest.]
prince petrovitch
Quelle bétise! The more starvation there is among the people, the better. It teaches them self-denial, an excellent virtue, Baron, an excellent virtue.
baron raff
I have often heard so; I have often heard so.
gen. kotemkin
He talked of a Parliament, too, in Russia, and said the people should have deputies to represent them.
baron raff
As if there was not enough brawling in the streets already, but we must give the people a ·118· room to do it in. But, Messieurs, the worst is yet to come. He threatens a complete reform in the public service on the ground that the people are too heavily taxed.
marq. de poiv.
He can’t be serious there. What is the use of the people except to get money out of? But talking of taxes, my dear Baron, you must really let me have forty thousand roubles to-morrow? my wife says she must have a new diamond bracelet.
count r.
[Aside to Baron Raff.] Ah, to match the one Prince Paul gave her last week, I suppose.
prince petrovitch
I must have sixty thousand roubles at once, Baron. My son is overwhelmed with debts of honour which he can’t pay.
baron raff
What an excellent son to imitate his father so carefully!
gen. kotemkin
You are always getting money. I never get a single kopeck I have not got a right to. It’s unbearable; it’s ridiculous! My nephew is ·119· going to be married. I must get his dowry for him.
prince petrovitch
My dear General, your nephew must be a perfect Turk. He seems to get married three times a week regularly.
gen. kotemkin
Well, he wants dowry to console him.
count r.
I am sick of the town. I want a house in the country.
marq. de poiv.
I am sick of the country. I want a house in town.
baron raff
Mes amis, I am extremely sorry for you. It is out of the question.
prince petrovitch
But my son, Baron?
gen. kotemkin
But my nephew?
·120· marquis de p.
But my house in town?
count r.
But my house in the country?
marquis de p.
But my wife’s diamond bracelet?
baron raff
Gentlemen, impossible! The old régime in Russia is dead; the funeral begins to-day.
count r.
Then I shall wait for the resurrection.
prince petrovitch
Yes, but, en attendant, what are we to do?
baron raff
What have we always done in Russia when a Czar suggests reform?—nothing. You forget we are diplomatists. Men of thought should have nothing to do with action. Reforms in Russia are very tragic, but they always end in a farce.
·121· count r.
I wish Prince Paul were here. By the bye, I think this boy is rather ungrateful to him. If that clever old Prince had not proclaimed him Emperor at once without giving him time to think about it, he would have given up his crown, I believe, to the first cobbler he met in the street.
prince petrovitch
But do you think, Baron, that Prince Paul is really going?
baron raff
He is exiled.
prince petrovitch
Yes; but is he going?
baron raff
I am sure of it; at least he told me he had sent two telegrams already to Paris about his dinner.
count r.
Ah! that settles the matter.
czar
[Coming forward.] Prince Paul better send ·122· a third telegram and order [counting them] six extra places.
baron raff
The devil!
czar