60 Plays: The George Bernard Shaw Edition (Illustrated). GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

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СКАЧАТЬ stoop to be a flunkey? Call on me

       On your next evening out. I’ll make a man of you.

       Surely you are ambitious and aspire ——

      BASHVILLE. To be a butler and draw corks; wherefore,

       By Heaven, I will draw yours.

      [He hits Cashel on the nose, and runs out.

      Cashel [thoughtfully putting the side of his forefinger

       to his nose, and studying the blood on it].

      Too quick for me!

       There’s money in this youth.

      Reenter Lydia, hatted and gloved.

      LYDIA. O Heaven! you bleed.

      CASHEL. Lend me a key or other frigid object,

       That I may put it down my back, and staunch

       The welling life stream.

      LYDIA. [giving him her keys]. Oh, what have you done?

      CASHEL. Flush on the boko napped your footman’s left.

      LYDIA. I do not understand.

      CASHEL. True. Pardon me.

       I have received a blow upon the nose

       In sport from Bashville. Next, ablution; else

       I shall be total gules. [He hurries out.

      LYDIA. How well he speaks!

       There is a silver trumpet in his lips

       That stirs me to the finger ends. His nose

       Dropt lovely color: ’tis a perfect blood.

       I would ‘twere mingled with mine own!

      Enter Bashville

      What now?

      BASHVILLE. Madam, the coachman can no longer wait:

       The horses will take cold.

      LYDIA. I do beseech him

       A moment’s grace. Oh, mockery of wealth!

       The third class passenger unchidden rides

       Whither and when he will: obsequious trams

       Await him hourly: subterranean tubes

       With tireless coursers whisk him through the town;

       But we, the rich, are slaves to Houyhnhnms:

       We wait upon their colds, and frowst all day

       Indoors, if they but cough or spurn their hay.

      BASHVILLE. Madam, an omnibus to Euston Road,

       And thence t’ th’ Angel —

      Enter Cashel

      LYDIA. Let us haste, my love:

       The coachman is impatient.

      CASHEL. Did he guess

       He stays for Cashel Byron, he’d outwait

       Pompei’s sentinel. Let us away.

       This day of deeds, as yet but half begun,

       Must ended be in merrie Islington. [Exeunt Lydia and Cashel.

      BASHVILLE. Gods! how she hangs on’s arm! I am alone.

       Now let me lift the cover from my soul.

       O wasted humbleness! Deluded diffidence!

       How often have I said, Lie down, poor footman:

       She’ll never stoop to thee, rear as thou wilt

       Thy powder to the sky. And now, by Heaven,

       She stoops below me; condescends upon

       This hero of the pothouse, whose exploits,

       Writ in my character from my last place,

       Would damn me into ostlerdom. And yet

       There’s an eternal justice in it; for

       By so much as the ne’er subduéd Indian

       Excels the servile negro, doth this ruffian

       Precedence take of me. “Ich dien.” Damnation!

       I serve. My motto should have been, “I scalp.”

       And yet I do not bear the yoke for gold.

       Because I love her I have blacked her boots;

       Because I love her I have cleaned her knives,

       Doing in this the office of a boy,

       Whilst, like the celebrated maid that milks

       And does the meanest chares, I’ve shared the passions

       Of Cleopatra. It has been my pride

       To give her place the greater altitude

       By lowering mine, and of her dignity

       To be so jealous that my cheek has flamed

       Even at the thought of such a deep disgrace

       As love for such a one as I would be

       For such a one as she; and now! and now!

       A prizefighter! O irony! O bathos!

       To have made way for this! Oh, Bashville, Bashville:

       Why hast thou thought so lowly of thyself,

       So heavenly high of her? Let what will come,

       My love must speak: ’twas my respect was dumb.

      Scene II

      The Agricultural Hall in Islington, crowded with spectators.

       In the arena a throne, with a boxing ring

       before it. A balcony above on the right, occupied

       by persons of fashion: among others, Lydia and

       Lord Worthington.

      Flourish. Enter Lucian and Cetewayo, with Chiefs in attendance.

      CETEWAYO. Is this the Hall of Husbandmen?

      LUCIAN. СКАЧАТЬ