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

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СКАЧАТЬ The Duke and other nobles at the Court

       Are coming hither.

      GUIDO

      What of that? his name?

      MORANZONE

      Do they not seem a valiant company

       Of honourable, honest gentlemen?

      GUIDO

      His name, milord?

      [Enter the DUKE OF PADUA with COUNT BARDI, MAFFIO, PETRUCCI, and other gentlemen of his Court.]

      MORANZONE

      [quickly]

       The man to whom I kneel

       Is he who sold your father! mark me well.

      GUIDO

      [clutches hit dagger]

       The Duke!

      MORANZONE

      Leave off that fingering of thy knife.

       Hast thou so soon forgotten?

       [Kneels to the DUKE.]

       My noble Lord.

      DUKE

      Welcome, Count Moranzone; ‘tis some time

       Since we have seen you here in Padua.

       We hunted near your castle yesterday -

       Call you it castle? that bleak house of yours

       Wherein you sit a-mumbling o’er your beads,

       Telling your vices like a good old man.

       [Catches sight of GUIDO and starts back.]

       Who is that?

      MORANZONE

      My sister’s son, your Grace,

       Who being now of age to carry arms,

       Would for a season tarry at your Court

      DUKE

      [still looking at GUIDO]

       What is his name?

      MORANZONE

      Guido Ferranti, sir.

      DUKE

      His city?

      MORANZONE

      He is Mantuan by birth.

      DUKE

      [advancing towards GUIDO]

       You have the eyes of one I used to know,

       But he died childless. Are you honest, boy?

       Then be not spendthrift of your honesty,

       But keep it to yourself; in Padua

       Men think that honesty is ostentatious, so

       It is not of the fashion. Look at these lords.

      COUNT BARDI

      [aside]

       Here is some bitter arrow for us, sure.

      DUKE

      Why, every man among them has his price,

       Although, to do them justice, some of them

       Are quite expensive.

      COUNT BARDI

      [aside]

       There it comes indeed.

      DUKE

      So be not honest; eccentricity

       Is not a thing should ever be encouraged,

       Although, in this dull stupid age of ours,

       The most eccentric thing a man can do

       Is to have brains, then the mob mocks at him;

       And for the mob, despise it as I do,

       I hold its bubble praise and windy favours

       In such account, that popularity

       Is the one insult I have never suffered.

      MAFFIO

      [aside]

      He has enough of hate, if he needs that.

      DUKE

      Have prudence; in your dealings with the world

       Be not too hasty; act on the second thought,

       First impulses are generally good.

      GUIDO

      [aside]

       Surely a toad sits on his lips, and spills its venom there.

      DUKE

      See thou hast enemies,

       Else will the world think very little of thee;

       It is its test of power; yet see thou show’st

       A smiling mask of friendship to all men,

       Until thou hast them safely in thy grip,

       Then thou canst crush them.

      GUIDO

      [aside]

       O wise philosopher!

       That for thyself dost dig so deep a grave.

      MORANZONE

      [to him]

       Dost thou mark his words?

      GUIDO

      Oh, be thou sure I do.

      DUKE

      And be not over-scrupulous; clean hands

       СКАЧАТЬ