Free Delphi Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Illustrated) by Oscar Wilde Page A

jealousy that thou art twice as fair.
     
    Vera. Yet would that thou hadst heard the nightingale. Methinks that bird will never sing again.
     
    Czar. It is no nightingale. ’Tis love himself singing for very ecstasy of joy that thou art changed into his votaress. ( Clock begins striking twelve. ) Oh, listen, sweet, it is the lover’s hour. Come, let us stand without, and hear the midnight answered from tower to tower over the wide white town. Our wedding night! What is that? What is that?
     
    ( Loud murmurs of Conspirators in the street. )
     
    Vera ( breaks from him and rushes across the stage ). The wedding guests are here already! Ay, you shall have your sign! ( Stabs herself. ) You shall have your sign! ( Rushes to the window. )
     
    Czar ( intercepts her by rushing between her and window, and snatches dagger out of her hand ). Vera!
     
    Vera ( clinging to him ). Give me back the dagger! Give me back the dagger! There are men in the street who seek your life! Your guards have betrayed you! This bloody dagger is the signal that you are dead. ( Conspirators begin to shout below in the street. ) Oh, there is not a moment to be lost! Throw it out! Throw it out! Nothing can save me now; this dagger is poisoned! I feel death already in my heart.
     
    Czar ( holding dagger out of her reach ). Death is in my heart too; we shall die together.
     
    Vera. Oh, love! love! love! be merciful to me! The wolves are hot upon you! you must live for liberty, for Russia, for me! Oh, you do not love me! You offered me an empire once! Give me this dagger now! Oh, you are cruel! My life for yours! What does it matter? ( Loud shouts in the street, “ Vera! Vera! To the rescue! To the rescue! ”)
     
    Czar. The bitterness of death is past for me.
     
    Vera. Oh, they are breaking in below! See! The bloody man behind you! ( Czarevitch turns round for an instant. ) Ah! ( Vera snatches dagger and flings it out of window. )
     
    Consps. ( below ). Long live the people!
     
    Czar. What have you done?
     
    Vera. I have saved Russia ( Dies. )
     
    TABLEAU.
     

THE DUCHESS OF PADUA

     
    Wilde’s second play is a five act tragedy set in Padua and composed in blank verse. It was written for the actress Mary Anderson in early 1883. After she turned it down, it was abandoned until its first performance at The Broadway Theatre in New York under the title Guido Ferranti on the 26th January 1891, where it ran for three weeks. Like Wilde’s first play Vera , it is rarely revived or studied.
    The Duchess of Padua tells the story of a young man named Guido, who was brought up by a man he believed was his uncle.   Guido receives a notice to meet a man in Padua concerning his parentage and when he arrives he is convinced by the stranger Moranzone to abandon his only friend Ascanio in order to dedicate himself to revenging his father’s death at the hands of Simone Gesso, the Duke of Padua.

 
    Wilde, c. 1885

THE PERSONS OF THE PLA Y
     
    Simone Gesso, Duke of Padua
    Beatrice, his Wife
    Andreas Pollajuolo, Cardinal of Padua
    Maffio Petrucci, 
    Jeppo Vitellozzo,
    Gentlemen of the Duke’s Household
    Taddeo Bardi,     
    Guido Ferranti, a Young Man
    Ascanio Cristofano, his Friend
    Count Moranzone, an Old Man
    Bernardo Cavalcanti, Lord Justice of Padua
    Hugo, the Headsman
    Lucy, a Tire woman
    Servants, Citizens, Soldiers, Monks, Falconers with their hawks and dogs, etc.
    Place: Padua
Time: The latter half of the Sixteenth Century
Style of Architecture:  Italian, Gothic and Romanesque.

ACT I
     
    SCENE
     
    The Market Place of Padua at noon; in the background is the great Cathedral of Padua; the architecture is Romanesque, and wrought in black and white marbles; a flight of marble steps leads up to the Cathedral door; at the foot of the steps are two large stone lions; the houses on each aide of the stage have coloured awnings from their windows, and are flanked by stone arcades; on the right of the stage is the public fountain, with a triton in green