Complete Plays. Оскар Уайльд

back and seal them up?

       Alas! Each drop will be a tear, and so

       Will with its saltness make life very bitter.

      GUIDO

       I pray you speak no more, for I must go

       Forth from your life and love, and make a way

       On which you cannot follow.

      DUCHESS

       I have heard

       That sailors dying of thirst upon a raft,

       Poor castaways upon a lonely sea,

       Dream of green fields and pleasant water-courses,

       And then wake up with red thirst in their throats,

       And die more miserably because sleep

       Has cheated them: so they die cursing sleep

       For having sent them dreams: I will not curse you

       Though I am cast away upon the sea

       Which men call Desolation.

      GUIDO O God, God!

      DUCHESS

       But you will stay: listen, I love you, Guido.

       [She waits a little.]

       Is echo dead, that when I say I love you

       There is no answer?

      GUIDO

       Everything is dead,

       Save one thing only, which shall die tonight!

      DUCHESS

       If you are going, touch me not, but go.

       [Exit GUIDO.]

       Barrier! Barrier!

       Why did he say there was a barrier?

       There is no barrier between us two.

       He lied to me, and shall I for that reason

       Loathe what I love, and what I worshipped, hate?

       I think we women do not love like that.

       For if I cut his image from my heart,

       My heart would, like a bleeding pilgrim, follow

       That image through the world, and call it back

       With little cries of love.

       [Enter DUKE equipped for the chase, with falconers and hounds.]

      DUKE

       Madam, you keep us waiting;

       You keep my dogs waiting.

      DUCHESS I will not ride to-day.

      DUKE How now, what’s this?

      DUCHESS My Lord, I cannot go.

      DUKE

       What, pale face, do you dare to stand against me?

       Why, I could set you on a sorry jade

       And lead you through the town, till the low rabble

       You feed toss up their hats and mock at you.

      DUCHESS Have you no word of kindness ever for me?

      DUKE

       I hold you in the hollow of my hand

       And have no need on you to waste kind words.

      DUCHESS Well, I will go.

      DUKE

       [slapping his boot with his whip]

       No, I have changed my mind,

       You will stay here, and like a faithful wife

       Watch from the window for our coming back.

       Were it not dreadful if some accident

       By chance should happen to your loving Lord?

       Come, gentlemen, my hounds begin to chafe,

       And I chafe too, having a patient wife.

       Where is young Guido?

      MAFFIO

       My liege, I have not seen him

       For a full hour past.

      DUKE

       It matters not,

       I dare say I shall see him soon enough.

       Well, Madam, you will sit at home and spin.

       I do protest, sirs, the domestic virtues

       Are often very beautiful in others.

      [Exit DUKE with his Court.]

      DUCHESS

       The stars have fought against me, that is all,

       And thus tonight when my Lord lieth asleep,

       Will I fall upon my dagger, and so cease.

       My heart is such a stone nothing can reach it

       Except the dagger’s edge: let it go there,

       To find what name it carries: ay! tonight

       Death will divorce the Duke; and yet tonight

       He may die also, he is very old.

       Why should he not die? Yesterday his hand

       Shook with a palsy: men have died from palsy,

       And why not he? Are there not fevers also,

       Agues and chills, and other maladies

       Most incident to old age?

       No, no, he will not die, he is too sinful;

       Honest men die before their proper time.

       Good men will die: men by whose side the Duke

       In all the sick pollution of his life

       Seems like a leper: women and children die,

       But the Duke will not die, he is too sinful.

       Oh, can it be

       There is some immortality in sin,

       Which virtue has not? And does the wicked man

       Draw life from what to other men were death,

       Like poisonous plants that on corruption live?

       No, no, I think God would not suffer that:

       Yet the Duke will not die: he is too sinful.

       But I will die alone, and on this night

       Grim Death shall be my bridegroom, and the tomb

       My secret house of pleasure: well, what of that?

       The world’s a graveyard, and we each, like coffins,

       Within us bear a skeleton.

       [Enter LORD MORANZONE all in black; he passes across the back of the stage looking anxiously about.]

      MORANZONE

       Where is Guido?

       I cannot find him anywhere.

      DUCHESS

       [catches sight of him] O God!

       ‘Twas thou who took my love away from me.

      MORANZONE

       [with a look of joy]

       What, has he left you?

      DUCHESS

       Nay, you know he has.

       Oh, give him back to me, give him back, I say,

       Or I will tear your body limb from limb,

       And to the common gibbet nail your head

       Until the carrion crows have stripped it bare.

       Better you had crossed a hungry lioness

       Before you came between me and my love.

       [With more pathos.]