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

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СКАЧАТЬ Thou need’st no other.

      GUIDO

      Well, then be it so.

       [Enter ASCANIO CRISTOFANO.]

      ASCANIO

      Come, Guido, I have been beforehand with you in everything, for I have drunk a flagon of wine, eaten a pasty, and kissed the maid who served it. Why, you look as melancholy as a schoolboy who cannot buy apples, or a politician who cannot sell his vote. What news, Guido, what news?

      GUIDO

      Why, that we two must part, Ascanio.

      ASCANIO

      That would be news indeed, but it is not true.

      GUIDO

      Too true it is, you must get hence, Ascanio,

       And never look upon my face again.

      ASCANIO

      No, no; indeed you do not know me, Guido;

       ‘Tis true I am a common yeoman’s son,

       Nor versed in fashions of much courtesy;

       But, if you are nobly born, cannot I be

       Your serving man? I will tend you with more love

       Than any hired servant.

      GUIDO

      [clasping his hand]

       Ascanio!

       [Sees MORANZONE looking at him and drops ASCANIO’S hand.]

       It cannot be.

      ASCANIO

      What, is it so with you?

       I thought the friendship of the antique world

       Was not yet dead, but that the Roman type

       Might even in this poor and common age

       Find counterparts of love; then by this love

       Which beats between us like a summer sea,

       Whatever lot has fallen to your hand

       May I not share it?

      GUIDO

      Share it?

      ASCANIO

      Ay!

      GUIDO

      No, no.

      ASCANIO

      Have you then come to some inheritance

       Of lordly castle, or of stored-up gold?

      GUIDO

      [bitterly]

       Ay! I have come to my inheritance.

       O bloody legacy! and O murderous dole!

       Which, like the thrifty miser, must I hoard,

       And to my own self keep; and so, I pray you,

       Let us part here.

      ASCANIO

      What, shall we never more

       Sit hand in hand, as we were wont to sit,

       Over some book of ancient chivalry

       Stealing a truant holiday from school,

       Follow the huntsmen through the autumn woods,

       And watch the falcons burst their tasselled jesses,

       When the hare breaks from covert.

      GUIDO

      Never more.

      ASCANIO

      Must I go hence without a word of love?

      GUIDO

      You must go hence, and may love go with you.

      ASCANIO

      You are unknightly, and ungenerous.

      GUIDO

      Unknightly and ungenerous if you will.

       Why should we waste more words about the matter

       Let us part now.

      ASCANIO

      Have you no message, Guido?

      GUIDO

      None; my whole past was but a schoolboy’s dream;

       To-day my life begins. Farewell.

      ASCANIO

      Farewell [exit slowly.]

      GUIDO

      Now are you satisfied? Have you not seen

       My dearest friend, and my most loved companion,

       Thrust from me like a common kitchen knave!

       Oh, that I did it! Are you not satisfied?

      MORANZONE

      Ay! I am satisfied. Now I go hence,

       Do not forget the sign, your father’s dagger,

       And do the business when I send it to you.

      GUIDO

      Be sure I shall. [Exit LORD MORANZONE.]

      GUIDO

      O thou eternal heaven!

       If there is aught of nature in my soul,

       Of gentle pity, or fond kindliness,

       Wither it up, blast it, bring it to nothing,

       Or if thou wilt not, then will I myself

       Cut pity with a sharp knife from my heart

       And strangle mercy in her sleep at night

       СКАЧАТЬ