Complete Plays. Оскар Уайльд

The devil take her!

      GUIDO [still at the window]

       And followed by a dozen of the citizens

       Has come into the Palace.

      DUKE [starting up]

       By Saint James,

       Our Duchess waxes bold!

      BARDI Here comes the Duchess.

      DUKE Shut that door there; this morning air is cold.

       [They close the door on the corridor.]

       [Enter the Duchess followed by a crowd of meanly dressed Citizens.]

      DUCHESS [flinging herself upon her knees]

       I do beseech your Grace to give us audience.

      DUKE What are these grievances?

      DUCHESS

       Alas, my Lord,

       Such common things as neither you nor I,

       Nor any of these noble gentlemen,

       Have ever need at all to think about;

       They say the bread, the very bread they eat,

       Is made of sorry chaff.

      FIRST CITIZEN

       Ay! so it is,

       Nothing but chaff.

      DUKE

       And very good food too,

       I give it to my horses.

      DUCHESS [restraining herself]

       They say the water,

       Set in the public cisterns for their use,

       [Has, through the breaking of the aqueduct,]

       To stagnant pools and muddy puddles turned.

      DUKE They should drink wine; water is quite unwholesome.

      SECOND CITIZEN

       Alack, your Grace, the taxes which the customs

       Take at the city gate are grown so high

       We cannot buy wine.

      DUKE

       Then you should bless the taxes

       Which make you temperate.

      DUCHESS

       Think, while we sit

       In gorgeous pomp and state, gaunt poverty

       Creeps through their sunless lanes, and with sharp knives

       Cuts the warm throats of children stealthily

       And no word said.

      THIRD CITIZEN

       Ay! marry, that is true,

       My little son died yesternight from hunger;

       He was but six years old; I am so poor,

       I cannot bury him.

      DUKE

       If you are poor,

       Are you not blessed in that? Why, poverty

       Is one of the Christian virtues,

       [Turns to the CARDINAL.]

       Is it not?

       I know, Lord Cardinal, you have great revenues,

       Rich abbey-lands, and tithes, and large estates

       For preaching voluntary poverty.

      DUCHESS

       Nay but, my lord the Duke, be generous;

       While we sit here within a noble house

       [With shaded porticoes against the sun,

       And walls and roofs to keep the winter out],

       There are many citizens of Padua

       Who in vile tenements live so full of holes,

       That the chill rain, the snow, and the rude blast,

       Are tenants also with them; others sleep

       Under the arches of the public bridges

       All through the autumn nights, till the wet mist

       Stiffens their limbs, and fevers come, and so -

      DUKE

       And so they go to Abraham’s bosom, Madam.

       They should thank me for sending them to Heaven,

       If they are wretched here.

       [To the CARDINAL.]

       Is it not said

       Somewhere in Holy Writ, that every man

       Should be contented with that state of life

       God calls him to? Why should I change their state,

       Or meddle with an all-wise providence,

       Which has apportioned that some men should starve,

       And others surfeit? I did not make the world.

      FIRST CITIZEN He hath a hard heart.

      SECOND CITIZEN

       Nay, be silent, neighbour;

       I think the Cardinal will speak for us.

      CARDINAL

       True, it is Christian to bear misery,

       Yet it is Christian also to be kind,

       And there seem many evils in this town,

       Which in your wisdom might your Grace reform.

      FIRST CITIZEN What is that word reform? What does it mean?

      SECOND CITIZEN Marry, it means leaving things as they are; I like it not.

      DUKE

       Reform Lord Cardinal, did you say reform?

       There is a man in Germany called Luther,

       Who would reform the Holy Catholic Church.

       Have you not made him heretic, and uttered

       Anathema, maranatha, against him?

      CARDINAL [rising from his seat]

       He would have led the sheep out of the fold,

       We do but ask of you to feed the sheep.

      DUKE

       When I have shorn their fleeces I may feed them.

       As for these rebels -

       [DUCHESS entreats him.]

      FIRST CITIZEN

       That is a kind word,

       He means to give us something.

      SECOND CITIZEN Is that so?

      DUKE

       These ragged knaves who come before us here,

       With mouths chock-full of treason.

      THIRD CITIZEN

       Good my Lord,

       Fill up our mouths with bread; we’ll hold our tongues.

      DUKE

       Ye shall hold your tongues, whether you starve or not.

       My lords, this age is so familiar grown,

       That the low peasant hardly doffs his hat,

       Unless you beat him; and the raw mechanic

       Elbows the noble in the public streets.

       [To the Citizens.]

       Still as our gentle Duchess has so prayed us,

       And to refuse so beautiful a beggar

       Were to lack both courtesy and love,

       Touching your grievances, I promise this -

      FIRST