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

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СКАЧАТЬ not wear it, need I, my Lord Cardinal?

       Oh, how it sears and burns into my brain:

       Give me a knife; not that one, but another,

       And I will cut it out.

      CARDINAL

      It is most natural

       To be incensed against the murderous hand

       That treacherously stabbed your sleeping lord.

      DUCHESS

      I would, old Cardinal, I could burn that hand;

       But it will burn hereafter.

      CARDINAL

      Nay, the Church

       Ordains us to forgive our enemies.

      DUCHESS

      Forgiveness? what is that? I never got it.

       They come at last: well, my Lord Justice, well.

       [Enter the LORD JUSTICE.]

      LORD JUSTICE

      Most gracious Lady, and our sovereign Liege,

       We have long pondered on the point at issue,

       And much considered of your Grace’s wisdom,

       And never wisdom spake from fairer lips -

      DUCHESS

      Proceed, sir, without compliment.

      LORD JUSTICE

      We find,

       As your own Grace did rightly signify,

       That any citizen, who by force or craft

       Conspires against the person of the Liege,

       Is ipso facto outlaw, void of rights

       Such as pertain to other citizens,

       Is traitor, and a public enemy,

       Who may by any casual sword be slain

       Without the slayer’s danger; nay, if brought

       Into the presence of the tribunal,

       Must with dumb lips and silence reverent

       Listen unto his well-deserved doom,

       Nor has the privilege of open speech.

      DUCHESS

      I thank thee, my Lord Justice, heartily;

       I like your law: and now I pray dispatch

       This public outlaw to his righteous doom;

       What is there more?

      LORD JUSTICE

      Ay, there is more, your Grace.

       This man being alien born, not Paduan,

       Nor by allegiance bound unto the Duke,

       Save such as common nature doth lay down,

       Hath, though accused of treasons manifold,

       Whose slightest penalty is certain death,

       Yet still the right of public utterance

       Before the people and the open court;

       Nay, shall be much entreated by the Court,

       To make some formal pleading for his life,

       Lest his own city, righteously incensed,

       Should with an unjust trial tax our state,

       And wars spring up against the commonwealth:

       So merciful are the laws of Padua

       Unto the stranger living in her gates.

      DUCHESS

      Being of my Lord’s household, is he stranger here?

      LORD JUSTICE

      Ay, until seven years of service spent

       He cannot be a Paduan citizen.

      GUIDO

      I thank thee, my Lord Justice, heartily;

       I like your law.

      SECOND CITIZEN

      I like no law at all:

       Were there no law there’d be no law-breakers,

       So all men would be virtuous.

      FIRST CITIZEN

      So they would;

       ‘Tis a wise saying that, and brings you far.

      TIPSTAFF

      Ay! to the gallows, knave.

      DUCHESS

      Is this the law?

      LORD JUSTICE

      It is the law most certainly, my liege.

      DUCHESS

      Show me the book: ‘tis written in blood-red.

      JEPPO

      Look at the Duchess.

      DUCHESS

      Thou accursed law,

       I would that I could tear thee from the state

       As easy as I tear thee from this book.

       [Tears out the page.]

       Come here, Count Bardi: are you honourable?

       Get a horse ready for me at my house,

       For I must ride to Venice instantly.

      BARDI

      To Venice, Madam?

      DUCHESS

      Not a word of this,

       Go, СКАЧАТЬ