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

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      [clutching his dagger] Doth Malatesta live?

      MORANZONE

      No, he is dead.

      GUIDO

      Did you say dead? O too swift runner, Death,

       Couldst thou not wait for me a little space,

       And I had done thy bidding!

      MORANZONE

      [clutching his wrist] Thou canst do it!

       The man who sold thy father is alive.

      GUIDO

      Sold! was my father sold?

      MORANZONE

      Ay! trafficked for,

       Like a vile chattel, for a price betrayed,

       Bartered and bargained for in privy market

       By one whom he had held his perfect friend,

       One he had trusted, one he had well loved,

       One whom by ties of kindness he had bound -

      GUIDO

      And he lives

       Who sold my father?

      MORANZONE

      I will bring you to him.

      GUIDO

      So, Judas, thou art living! well, I will make

       This world thy field of blood, so buy it straightway,

       For thou must hang there.

      MORANZONE

      Judas said you, boy?

       Yes, Judas in his treachery, but still

       He was more wise than Judas was, and held

       Those thirty silver pieces not enough.

      GUIDO

      What got he for my father’s blood?

      MORANZONE

      What got he?

       Why cities, fiefs, and principalities,

       Vineyards, and lands.

      GUIDO

      Of which he shall but keep

       Six feet of ground to rot in. Where is he,

       This damned villain, this foul devil? where?

       Show me the man, and come he cased in steel,

       In complete panoply and pride of war,

       Ay, guarded by a thousand men-at-arms,

       Yet I shall reach him through their spears, and feel

       The last black drop of blood from his black heart

       Crawl down my blade. Show me the man, I say,

       And I will kill him.

      MORANZONE

      [coldly]

       Fool, what revenge is there?

       Death is the common heritage of all,

       And death comes best when it comes suddenly.

       [Goes up close to GUIDO.]

       Your father was betrayed, there is your cue;

       For you shall sell the seller in his turn.

       I will make you of his household, you shall sit

       At the same board with him, eat of his bread -

      GUIDO

      O bitter bread!

      MORANZONE

      Thy palate is too nice,

       Revenge will make it sweet. Thou shalt o’ nights

       Pledge him in wine, drink from his cup, and be

       His intimate, so he will fawn on thee,

       Love thee, and trust thee in all secret things.

       If he bid thee be merry thou must laugh,

       And if it be his humour to be sad

       Thou shalt don sables. Then when the time is ripe -

       [GUIDO clutches his sword.]

       Nay, nay, I trust thee not; your hot young blood,

       Undisciplined nature, and too violent rage

       Will never tarry for this great revenge,

       But wreck itself on passion.

      GUIDO

      Thou knowest me not.

       Tell me the man, and I in everything

       Will do thy bidding.

      MORANZONE

      Well, when the time is ripe,

       The victim trusting and the occasion sure,

       I will by sudden secret messenger

       Send thee a sign.

      GUIDO

      How shall I kill him, tell me?

      MORANZONE

      That night thou shalt creep into his private chamber;

       But if he sleep see that thou wake him first,

       And hold thy hand upon his throat, ay! that way,

       Then having told him of what blood thou art,

       Sprung from what father, and for what revenge,

       Bid him to pray for mercy; when he prays,

       Bid him to set a price upon his life,

       And when he strips himself of all his gold

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