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

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ To be incensed against the murderous hand

       That treacherously stabbed your sleeping lord.

      DUCHESS

       I would, old Cardinal, I could burn that hand;

       But it will burn hereafter.

      CARDINAL

       Nay, the Church

       Ordains us to forgive our enemies.

      DUCHESS

       Forgiveness? what is that? I never got it.

       They come at last: well, my Lord Justice, well.

       [Enter the LORD JUSTICE.]

      LORD JUSTICE

       Most gracious Lady, and our sovereign Liege,

       We have long pondered on the point at issue,

       And much considered of your Grace’s wisdom,

       And never wisdom spake from fairer lips -

      DUCHESS

       Proceed, sir, without compliment.

      LORD JUSTICE

       We find,

       As your own Grace did rightly signify,

       That any citizen, who by force or craft

       Conspires against the person of the Liege,

       Is ipso facto outlaw, void of rights

       Such as pertain to other citizens,

       Is traitor, and a public enemy,

       Who may by any casual sword be slain

       Without the slayer’s danger; nay, if brought

       Into the presence of the tribunal,

       Must with dumb lips and silence reverent

       Listen unto his well-deserved doom,

       Nor has the privilege of open speech.

      DUCHESS

       I thank thee, my Lord Justice, heartily;

       I like your law: and now I pray dispatch

       This public outlaw to his righteous doom;

       What is there more?

      LORD JUSTICE

       Ay, there is more, your Grace.

       This man being alien born, not Paduan,

       Nor by allegiance bound unto the Duke,

       Save such as common nature doth lay down,

       Hath, though accused of treasons manifold,

       Whose slightest penalty is certain death,

       Yet still the right of public utterance

       Before the people and the open court;

       Nay, shall be much entreated by the Court,

       To make some formal pleading for his life,

       Lest his own city, righteously incensed,

       Should with an unjust trial tax our state,

       And wars spring up against the commonwealth:

       So merciful are the laws of Padua

       Unto the stranger living in her gates.

      DUCHESS

       Being of my Lord’s household, is he stranger here?

      LORD JUSTICE

       Ay, until seven years of service spent

       He cannot be a Paduan citizen.

      GUIDO

       I thank thee, my Lord Justice, heartily;

       I like your law.

      SECOND CITIZEN

       I like no law at all:

       Were there no law there’d be no law-breakers,

       So all men would be virtuous.

      FIRST CITIZEN

       So they would;

       ‘Tis a wise saying that, and brings you far.

      TIPSTAFF

       Ay! to the gallows, knave.

      DUCHESS

       Is this the law?

      LORD JUSTICE

       It is the law most certainly, my liege.

      DUCHESS

       Show me the book: ‘tis written in blood-red.

      JEPPO

       Look at the Duchess.

      DUCHESS

       Thou accursed law,

       I would that I could tear thee from the state

       As easy as I tear thee from this book.

       [Tears out the page.]

       Come here, Count Bardi: are you honourable?

       Get a horse ready for me at my house,

       For I must ride to Venice instantly.

      BARDI

       To Venice, Madam?

      DUCHESS

       Not a word of this,

       Go, go at once. [Exit COUNT BARDI.]

       A moment, my Lord Justice.

       If, as thou sayest it, this is the law -

       Nay, nay, I doubt not that thou sayest right,

       Though right be wrong in such a case as this -

       May I not by the virtue of mine office

       Adjourn this court until another day?

      LORD JUSTICE

       Madam, you cannot stay a trial for blood.

      DUCHESS

       СКАЧАТЬ