The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: 150+ Titles in One Edition. Oscar Wilde

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">       Bring me ripe fruits. (Fruits are brought.)

       Salomé, come and eat fruits with me. I love to see in a fruit the mark of thy little teeth. Bite but a little of this fruit, that I may eat what is left.

      SALOMÉ

       I am not hungry, Tetrarch.

      HEROD

       (To Herodias)

       You see how you have brought up this daughter of yours.

      HERODIAS

       My daughter and I come of a royal race. As for thee, thy father was a camel driver! He was a thief and a robber to boot!

      HEROD

       Thou liest!

      HERODIAS

       Thou knowest well that it is true.

      HEROD

       Salomé, come and sit next to me. I will give thee the throne of thy mother.

      SALOMÉ

       I am not tired, Tetrarch.

      HERODIAS

       You see in what regard she holds you.

      HEROD

       Bring me — What is it that I desire? I forget. Ah! ah! I remember.

      THE VOICE OF IOKANAAN

       Behold the time is come! That which I foretold has come to pass. The day that I spake of is at hand.

      HERODIAS

       Bid him be silent. I will not listen to his voice. This man is for ever hurling insults against me.

      HEROD

       He has said nothing against you. Besides, he is a very great prophet.

      HERODIAS

       I do not believe in prophets. Can a man tell what will come to pass? No man knows it. Also he is for ever insulting me. But I think you are afraid of him … . I know well that you are afraid of him.

      HEROD

       I am not afraid of him. I am afraid of no man.

      HERODIAS

       I tell you you are afraid of him. If you are not afraid of him why do you not deliver him to the Jews who for these six months past have been clamouring for him?

      A JEW

       Truly, my lord, it were better to deliver him into our hands.

      HEROD

       Enough on this subject. I have already given you my answer. I will not deliver him into your hands. He is a holy man. He is a man who has seen God.

      A JEW

       That cannot be. There is no man who hath seen God since the prophet Elias. He is the last man who saw God face to face. In these days God doth not show Himself. God hideth Himself. Therefore great evils have come upon the land.

      ANOTHER JEW

       Verily, no man knoweth if Elias the prophet did indeed see God. Peradventure it was but the shadow of God that he saw.

      A THIRD JEW

       God is at no time hidden. He showeth Himself at all times and in all places. God is in what is evil even as He is in what is good.

      A FOURTH JEW

       Thou shouldst not say that. It is a very dangerous doctrine. It is a doctrine that cometh from Alexandria, where men teach the philosophy of the Greeks. And the Greeks are Gentiles. They are not even circumcised.

      FIFTH JEW

       No man can tell how God worketh. His ways are very dark. It may be that the things which we call evil are good, and that the things which we call good are evil. There is no knowledge of anything. We can but bow our heads to His will, for God is very strong. He breaketh in pieces the strong together with the weak, for He regardeth not any man.

      FIRST JEW

       Thou speakest truly. Verily, God is terrible. He breaketh in pieces the strong and the weak as men break corn in a mortar. But as for this man, he hath never seen God. No man hath seen God since the prophet Elias.

      HERODIAS

       Make them be silent. They weary me.

      HEROD

       But I have heard it said that Iokanaan is in very truth your prophet Elias.

      THE JEW

       That cannot be. It is more than three hundred years since the days of the prophet Elias.

      HEROD

       There be some who say that this man is Elias the prophet.

      A NAZARENE

       I am sure that he is Elias the prophet.

      THE JEW

       Nay, but he is not Elias the prophet.

      THE VOICE OF IOKANAAN

       Behold the day is at hand, the day of the Lord, and I hear upon the mountains the feet of Him who shall be the Saviour of the world.

      HEROD

       What does that mean? The Saviour of the world?

      TIGELLINUS

       It is a title that Cæsar adopts.

      HEROD

       But Cæsar is not coming into Judæa. Only yesterday I received letters from Rome. They contained nothing concerning this matter. And you, Tigellinus, who were at Rome during the winter, you heard nothing concerning this matter, did you?

      TIGELLINUS

       Sire, I heard nothing concerning the matter. I was but explaining the title. It is one of Cæsar’s titles.

      HEROD

       But Cæsar cannot come. He is too gouty. They say that his feet are like the feet of an elephant. Also there are reasons of state. He who leaves Rome loses Rome. He will not come. Howbeit, Cæsar is lord, he will come if such be his pleasure. Nevertheless, I think he will not come.

      FIRST NAZARENE

       It was not concerning Cæsar that the prophet spake these words, sire.

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