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

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СКАЧАТЬ my hand: there is no blood upon it:

       You need not fear. Will you not take the ring?

      GUIDO

      [takes ring and kisses it]

       Ay! gladly, Madam.

      DUCHESS

      And leave Padua.

      GUIDO

      Leave Padua.

      DUCHESS

      But it must be tonight.

      GUIDO

      Tonight it shall be.

      DUCHESS

      Oh, thank God for that!

      GUIDO

      So I can live; life never seemed so sweet

       As at this moment.

      DUCHESS

      Do not tarry, Guido,

       There is my cloak: the horse is at the bridge,

       The second bridge below the ferry house:

       Why do you tarry? Can your ears not hear

       This dreadful bell, whose every ringing stroke

       Robs one brief minute from your boyish life.

       Go quickly.

      GUIDO

      Ay! he will come soon enough.

      DUCHESS

      Who?

      GUIDO

      [calmly]

       Why, the headsman.

      DUCHESS

      No, no.

      GUIDO

      Only he

       Can bring me out of Padua.

      DUCHESS

      You dare not!

       You dare not burden my o’erburdened soul

       With two dead men! I think one is enough.

       For when I stand before God, face to face,

       I would not have you, with a scarlet thread

       Around your white throat, coming up behind

       To say I did it.

      GUIDO

      Madam, I wait.

      DUCHESS

      No, no, you cannot: you do not understand,

       I have less power in Padua tonight

       Than any common woman; they will kill you.

       I saw the scaffold as I crossed the square,

       Already the low rabble throng about it

       With fearful jests, and horrid merriment,

       As though it were a morris-dancer’s platform,

       And not Death’s sable throne. O Guido, Guido,

       You must escape!

      GUIDO

      Madam, I tarry here.

      DUCHESS

      Guido, you shall not: it would be a thing

       So terrible that the amazed stars

       Would fall from heaven, and the palsied moon

       Be in her sphere eclipsed, and the great sun

       Refuse to shine upon the unjust earth

       Which saw thee die.

      GUIDO

      Be sure I shall not stir.

      DUCHESS

      [wringing her hands]

       Is one sin not enough, but must it breed

       A second sin more horrible again

       Than was the one that bare it? O God, God,

       Seal up sin’s teeming womb, and make it barren,

       I will not have more blood upon my hand

       Than I have now.

      GUIDO

      [seizing her hand]

       What! am I fallen so low

       That I may not have leave to die for you?

      DUCHESS

      [tearing her hand away]

       Die for me? - no, my life is a vile thing,

       Thrown to the miry highways of this world;

       You shall not die for me, you shall not, Guido;

       I am a guilty woman.

      GUIDO

      Guilty? - let those

       Who know what a thing temptation is,

       Let those who have not walked as we have done,

       In the red fire of passion, those whose lives

       Are dull and colourless, in a word let those,

       If any such there be, who have not loved,

       Cast stones against you. As for me -

      DUCHESS

      Alas!

      GUIDO

      [falling at her feet]

       You are my lady, and you are my love!

       O hair of gold, O crimson lips, O face

       СКАЧАТЬ