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

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СКАЧАТЬ Tell him thou needest not gold, and hast not mercy,

       And do thy business straight away. Swear to me

       Thou wilt not kill him till I bid thee do it,

       Or else I go to mine own house, and leave

       Thee ignorant, and thy father unavenged.

      GUIDO

      Now by my father’s sword -

      MORANZONE

      The common hangman

       Brake that in sunder in the public square.

      GUIDO

      Then by my father’s grave -

      MORANZONE

      What grave? what grave?

       Your noble father lieth in no grave,

       I saw his dust strewn on the air, his ashes

       Whirled through the windy streets like common straws

       To plague a beggar’s eyesight, and his head,

       That gentle head, set on the prison spike,

       For the vile rabble in their insolence

       To shoot their tongues at.

      GUIDO

      Was it so indeed?

       Then by my father’s spotless memory,

       And by the shameful manner of his death,

       And by the base betrayal by his friend,

       For these at least remain, by these I swear

       I will not lay my hand upon his life

       Until you bid me, then - God help his soul,

       For he shall die as never dog died yet.

       And now, the sign, what is it?

      MORANZONE

      This dagger, boy;

       It was your father’s.

      GUIDO

      Oh, let me look at it!

       I do remember now my reputed uncle,

       That good old husbandman I left at home,

       Told me a cloak wrapped round me when a babe

       Bare too such yellow leopards wrought in gold;

       I like them best in steel, as they are here,

       They suit my purpose better. Tell me, sir,

       Have you no message from my father to me?

      MORANZONE

      Poor boy, you never saw that noble father,

       For when by his false friend he had been sold,

       Alone of all his gentlemen I escaped

       To bear the news to Parma to the Duchess.

      GUIDO

      Speak to me of my mother.

      MORANZONE

      When thy mother

       Heard my black news, she fell into a swoon,

       And, being with untimely travail seized -

       Bare thee into the world before thy time,

       And then her soul went heavenward, to wait

       Thy father, at the gates of Paradise.

      GUIDO

      A mother dead, a father sold and bartered!

       I seem to stand on some beleaguered wall,

       And messenger comes after messenger

       With a new tale of terror; give me breath,

       Mine ears are tired.

      MORANZONE

      When thy mother died,

       Fearing our enemies, I gave it out

       Thou wert dead also, and then privily

       Conveyed thee to an ancient servitor,

       Who by Perugia lived; the rest thou knowest.

      GUIDO

      Saw you my father afterwards?

      MORANZONE

      Ay! once;

       In mean attire, like a vineyard dresser,

       I stole to Rimini.

      GUIDO

      [taking his hand]

       O generous heart!

      MORANZONE

      One can buy everything in Rimini,

       And so I bought the gaolers! when your father

       Heard that a man child had been born to him,

       His noble face lit up beneath his helm

       Like a great fire seen far out at sea,

       And taking my two hands, he bade me, Guido,

       To rear you worthy of him; so I have reared you

       To revenge his death upon the friend who sold him.

      GUIDO

      Thou hast done well; I for my father thank thee.

       And now his name?

      MORANZONE

      How you remind me of him,

       You have each gesture that your father had.

      GUIDO

      The traitor’s name?

      MORANZONE

      Thou wilt hear that anon;

       СКАЧАТЬ