The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde: 250+ Titles in One Edition. Оскар Уайльд

The Duke and other nobles at the Court

       Are coming hither.

      GUIDO What of that? his name?

      MORANZONE

       Do they not seem a valiant company

       Of honourable, honest gentlemen?

      GUIDO His name, milord?

      [Enter the DUKE OF PADUA with COUNT BARDI, MAFFIO, PETRUCCI, and other gentlemen of his Court.]

      MORANZONE [quickly]

       The man to whom I kneel

       Is he who sold your father! mark me well.

      GUIDO [clutches hit dagger]

       The Duke!

      MORANZONE

       Leave off that fingering of thy knife.

       Hast thou so soon forgotten?

       [Kneels to the DUKE.]

       My noble Lord.

      DUKE

       Welcome, Count Moranzone; ‘tis some time

       Since we have seen you here in Padua.

       We hunted near your castle yesterday -

       Call you it castle? that bleak house of yours

       Wherein you sit a-mumbling o’er your beads,

       Telling your vices like a good old man.

       [Catches sight of GUIDO and starts back.]

       Who is that?

      MORANZONE

       My sister’s son, your Grace,

       Who being now of age to carry arms,

       Would for a season tarry at your Court

      DUKE [still looking at GUIDO]

       What is his name?

      MORANZONE Guido Ferranti, sir.

      DUKE His city?

      MORANZONE He is Mantuan by birth.

      DUKE [advancing towards GUIDO]

       You have the eyes of one I used to know,

       But he died childless. Are you honest, boy?

       Then be not spendthrift of your honesty,

       But keep it to yourself; in Padua

       Men think that honesty is ostentatious, so

       It is not of the fashion. Look at these lords.

      COUNT BARDI [aside]

       Here is some bitter arrow for us, sure.

      DUKE Why, every man among them has his price,

       Although, to do them justice, some of them

       Are quite expensive.

      COUNT BARDI [aside]

       There it comes indeed.

      DUKE

       So be not honest; eccentricity

       Is not a thing should ever be encouraged,

       Although, in this dull stupid age of ours,

       The most eccentric thing a man can do

       Is to have brains, then the mob mocks at him;

       And for the mob, despise it as I do,

       I hold its bubble praise and windy favours

       In such account, that popularity

       Is the one insult I have never suffered.

      MAFFIO [aside] He has enough of hate, if he needs that.

      DUKE

       Have prudence; in your dealings with the world

       Be not too hasty; act on the second thought,

       First impulses are generally good.

      GUIDO [aside]

       Surely a toad sits on his lips, and spills its venom there.

      DUKE

       See thou hast enemies,

       Else will the world think very little of thee;

       It is its test of power; yet see thou show’st

       A smiling mask of friendship to all men,

       Until thou hast them safely in thy grip,

       Then thou canst crush them.

      GUIDO [aside]

       O wise philosopher!

       That for thyself dost dig so deep a grave.

      MORANZONE [to him]

       Dost thou mark his words?

      GUIDO Oh, be thou sure I do.

      DUKE

       And be not over-scrupulous; clean hands

       With nothing in them make a sorry show.

       If you would have the lion’s share of life

       You must wear the fox’s skin. Oh, it will fit you;

       It is a coat which fitteth every man.

      GUIDO Your Grace, I shall remember.

      DUKE

       That is well, boy, well.

       I would not have about me shallow fools,

       Who with mean scruples weigh the gold of life,

       And faltering, paltering, end by failure; failure,

       The only crime which I have not committed:

       I would have men about me. As for conscience,

       Conscience is but the name which cowardice

       Fleeing from battle scrawls upon its shield.

       You understand me, boy?

      GUIDO

       I do, your Grace,

       And will in all things carry out the creed

       Which you have taught me.

      MAFFIO

       I never heard your Grace

       So much in the vein for preaching; let the Cardinal

       Look to his laurels, sir.

      DUKE

       The Cardinal!

       Men follow my creed, and they gabble his.

       I do not think much of the Cardinal;

       Although he is a holy churchman, and

       I quite admit his dulness. Well, sir, from now

       We count you of our household

       [He holds out his hand for GUIDO to kiss. GUIDO starts back in horror, but at a gesture from COUNT MORANZONE, kneels and kisses it.]

       We will see

       That you are furnished with such equipage

       As doth befit your honour and our state.

      GUIDO I thank your Grace most heartily.

      DUKE

       Tell me again

       What is your name?

      GUIDO Guido Ferranti, sir.

      DUKE

       And you are Mantuan? Look to your wives, my lords,

       When such a gallant comes to Padua.

       Thou dost well to laugh, Count Bardi; I have noted

       How merry is that husband by whose hearth

       Sits an uncomely wife.

      MAFFIO

       May it please your Grace,

       The wives