Kitobni o'qish: «The Duchess of Padua», sahifa 3

 
O God, God!
 

Duchess

 
But you will stay: listen, I love you, Guido.
 

[She waits a little.]

 
Is echo dead, that when I say I love you
There is no answer?
 

Guido

 
Everything is dead,
Save one thing only, which shall die to-night!
 

Duchess

 
If you are going, touch me not, but go.
 

[Exit Guido.]

 
Barrier!  Barrier!
Why did he say there was a barrier?
There is no barrier between us two.
He lied to me, and shall I for that reason
Loathe what I love, and what I worshipped, hate?
I think we women do not love like that.
For if I cut his image from my heart,
My heart would, like a bleeding pilgrim, follow
That image through the world, and call it back
With little cries of love.
 

[Enter Duke equipped for the chase, with falconers and hounds.]

Duke

 
Madam, you keep us waiting;
You keep my dogs waiting.
 

Duchess

 
I will not ride to-day.
 

Duke

 
How now, what’s this?
 

Duchess

 
My Lord, I cannot go.
 

Duke

 
What, pale face, do you dare to stand against me?
Why, I could set you on a sorry jade
And lead you through the town, till the low rabble
You feed toss up their hats and mock at you.
 

Duchess

 
Have you no word of kindness ever for me?
 

Duke

 
I hold you in the hollow of my hand
And have no need on you to waste kind words.
 

Duchess

 
Well, I will go.
 

Duke [slapping his boot with his whip]

 
No, I have changed my mind,
You will stay here, and like a faithful wife
Watch from the window for our coming back.
Were it not dreadful if some accident
By chance should happen to your loving Lord?
Come, gentlemen, my hounds begin to chafe,
And I chafe too, having a patient wife.
Where is young Guido?
 

Maffio

 
My liege, I have not seen him
For a full hour past.
 

Duke

 
It matters not,
I dare say I shall see him soon enough.
Well, Madam, you will sit at home and spin.
I do protest, sirs, the domestic virtues
Are often very beautiful in others.
 

[Exit Duke with his Court.]

Duchess

 
The stars have fought against me, that is all,
And thus to-night when my Lord lieth asleep,
Will I fall upon my dagger, and so cease.
My heart is such a stone nothing can reach it
Except the dagger’s edge: let it go there,
To find what name it carries: ay! to-night
Death will divorce the Duke; and yet to-night
He may die also, he is very old.
Why should he not die?  Yesterday his hand
Shook with a palsy: men have died from palsy,
And why not he?  Are there not fevers also,
Agues and chills, and other maladies
Most incident to old age?
No, no, he will not die, he is too sinful;
Honest men die before their proper time.
Good men will die: men by whose side the Duke
In all the sick pollution of his life
Seems like a leper: women and children die,
But the Duke will not die, he is too sinful.
Oh, can it be
There is some immortality in sin,
Which virtue has not?  And does the wicked man
Draw life from what to other men were death,
Like poisonous plants that on corruption live?
No, no, I think God would not suffer that:
Yet the Duke will not die: he is too sinful.
But I will die alone, and on this night
Grim Death shall be my bridegroom, and the tomb
My secret house of pleasure: well, what of that?
The world’s a graveyard, and we each, like coffins,
Within us bear a skeleton.
 

[Enter Lord Moranzone all in black; he passes across the back of the stage looking anxiously about.]

Moranzone

 
Where is Guido?
I cannot find him anywhere.
 

Duchess [catches sight of him]

 
O God!
’Twas thou who took my love away from me.
 

Moranzone [with a look of joy]

 
What, has he left you?
 

Duchess

 
Nay, you know he has.
Oh, give him back to me, give him back, I say,
Or I will tear your body limb from limb,
And to the common gibbet nail your head
Until the carrion crows have stripped it bare.
Better you had crossed a hungry lioness
Before you came between me and my love.
 

[With more pathos.]

 
Nay, give him back, you know not how I love him.
Here by this chair he knelt a half hour since;
’Twas there he stood, and there he looked at me;
This is the hand he kissed, and these the ears
Into whose open portals he did pour
A tale of love so musical that all
The birds stopped singing!  Oh, give him back to me.
 

Moranzone

 
He does not love you, Madam.
 

Duchess

 
May the plague
Wither the tongue that says so!  Give him back.
 

Moranzone

 
Madam, I tell you you will never see him,
Neither to-night, nor any other night.
 

Duchess

 
What is your name?
 

Moranzone

 
My name?  Revenge!
 

[Exit.]

Duchess

 
Revenge!
I think I never harmed a little child.
What should Revenge do coming to my door?
It matters not, for Death is there already,
Waiting with his dim torch to light my way.
’Tis true men hate thee, Death, and yet I think
Thou wilt be kinder to me than my lover,
And so dispatch the messengers at once,
Harry the lazy steeds of lingering day,
And let the night, thy sister, come instead,
And drape the world in mourning; let the owl,
Who is thy minister, scream from his tower
And wake the toad with hooting, and the bat,
That is the slave of dim Persephone,
Wheel through the sombre air on wandering wing!
Tear up the shrieking mandrakes from the earth
And bid them make us music, and tell the mole
To dig deep down thy cold and narrow bed,
For I shall lie within thine arms to-night.
 

END OF ACT II

ACT III

SCENE

A large corridor in the Ducal Palace: a window (L.C.) looks out on a view of Padua by moonlight: a staircase (R.C.) leads up to a door with a portière of crimson velvet, with the Duke’s arms embroidered in gold on it: on the lowest step of the staircase a figure draped in black is sitting: the hall is lit by an iron cresset filled with burning tow: thunder and lightning outside: the time is night.

[Enter Guido through the window.]

Guido

 
The wind is rising: how my ladder shook!
I thought that every gust would break the cords!
 

[Looks out at the city.]

 
Christ!  What a night:
Great thunder in the heavens, and wild lightnings
Striking from pinnacle to pinnacle
Across the city, till the dim houses seem
To shudder and to shake as each new glare
Dashes adown the street.
 

[Passes across the stage to foot of staircase.]

 
Ah! who art thou
That sittest on the stair, like unto Death
Waiting a guilty soul?  [A pause.]
Canst thou not speak?
Or has this storm laid palsy on thy tongue,
And chilled thy utterance?
 

[The figure rises and takes off his mask.]

Moranzone

 
Guido Ferranti,
Thy murdered father laughs for joy to-night.
 

Guido [confusedly]

 
What, art thou here?
 

Moranzone

 
Ay, waiting for your coming.
 

Guido [looking away from him]

 
I did not think to see you, but am glad,
That you may know the thing I mean to do.
 

Moranzone

 
First, I would have you know my well-laid plans;
Listen: I have set horses at the gate
Which leads to Parma: when you have done your business
We will ride hence, and by to-morrow night —
 

Guido

 
It cannot be.
 

Moranzone

 
Nay, but it shall.
 

Guido

 
Listen, Lord Moranzone,
I am resolved not to kill this man.
 

Moranzone

 
Surely my ears are traitors, speak again:
It cannot be but age has dulled my powers,
I am an old man now: what did you say?
You said that with that dagger in your belt
You would avenge your father’s bloody murder;
Did you not say that?
 

Guido

 
No, my lord, I said
I was resolved not to kill the Duke.
 

Moranzone

 
You said not that; it is my senses mock me;
Or else this midnight air o’ercharged with storm
Alters your message in the giving it.
 

Guido

 
Nay, you heard rightly; I’ll not kill this man.
 

Moranzone

 
What of thine oath, thou traitor, what of thine oath?
 

Guido

 
I am resolved not to keep that oath.
 

Moranzone

 
What of thy murdered father?
 

Guido

 
Dost thou think
My father would be glad to see me coming,
This old man’s blood still hot upon mine hands?
 

Moranzone

 
Ay! he would laugh for joy.
 

Guido

 
I do not think so,
There is better knowledge in the other world;
Vengeance is God’s, let God himself revenge.
 

Moranzone

 
Thou art God’s minister of vengeance.
 

Guido

 
No!
God hath no minister but his own hand.
I will not kill this man.
 

Moranzone

 
Why are you here,
If not to kill him, then?
 

Guido

 
Lord Moranzone,
I purpose to ascend to the Duke’s chamber,
And as he lies asleep lay on his breast
The dagger and this writing; when he awakes
Then he will know who held him in his power
And slew him not: this is the noblest vengeance
Which I can take.
 

Moranzone

 
You will not slay him?
 

Guido

 
No.
 

Moranzone

 
Ignoble son of a noble father,
Who sufferest this man who sold that father
To live an hour.
 

Guido

 
’Twas thou that hindered me;
I would have killed him in the open square,
The day I saw him first.
 

Moranzone

 
It was not yet time;
Now it is time, and, like some green-faced girl,
Thou pratest of forgiveness.
 

Guido

 
No! revenge:
The right revenge my father’s son should take.
 

Moranzone

 
You are a coward,
Take out the knife, get to the Duke’s chamber,
And bring me back his heart upon the blade.
When he is dead, then you can talk to me
Of noble vengeances.
 

Guido

 
Upon thine honour,
And by the love thou bearest my father’s name,
Dost thou think my father, that great gentleman,
That generous soldier, that most chivalrous lord,
Would have crept at night-time, like a common thief,
And stabbed an old man sleeping in his bed,
However he had wronged him: tell me that.
 

Moranzone

[after some hesitation]

 
You have sworn an oath, see that you keep that oath.
Boy, do you think I do not know your secret,
Your traffic with the Duchess?
 

Guido

 
Silence, liar!
The very moon in heaven is not more chaste.
Nor the white stars so pure.
 

Moranzone

 
And yet, you love her;
Weak fool, to let love in upon your life,
Save as a plaything.
 

Guido

 
You do well to talk:
Within your veins, old man, the pulse of youth
Throbs with no ardour.  Your eyes full of rheum
Have against Beauty closed their filmy doors,
And your clogged ears, losing their natural sense,
Have shut you from the music of the world.
You talk of love!  You know not what it is.
 

Moranzone

 
Oh, in my time, boy, have I walked i’ the moon,
Swore I would live on kisses and on blisses,
Swore I would die for love, and did not die,
Wrote love bad verses; ay, and sung them badly,
Like all true lovers: Oh, I have done the tricks!
I know the partings and the chamberings;
We are all animals at best, and love
Is merely passion with a holy name.
 

Guido

 
Now then I know you have not loved at all.
Love is the sacrament of life; it sets
Virtue where virtue was not; cleanses men
Of all the vile pollutions of this world;
It is the fire which purges gold from dross,
It is the fan which winnows wheat from chaff,
It is the spring which in some wintry soil
Makes innocence to blossom like a rose.
The days are over when God walked with men,
But Love, which is his image, holds his place.
When a man loves a woman, then he knows
God’s secret, and the secret of the world.
There is no house so lowly or so mean,
Which, if their hearts be pure who live in it,
Love will not enter; but if bloody murder
Knock at the Palace gate and is let in,
Love like a wounded thing creeps out and dies.
This is the punishment God sets on sin.
The wicked cannot love.
 

[A groan comes from the Duke’s chamber.]

 
Ah!  What is that?
Do you not hear?  ’Twas nothing.
So I think
That it is woman’s mission by their love
To save the souls of men: and loving her,
My Lady, my white Beatrice, I begin
To see a nobler and a holier vengeance
In letting this man live, than doth reside
In bloody deeds o’ night, stabs in the dark,
And young hands clutching at a palsied throat.
It was, I think, for love’s sake that Lord Christ,
Who was indeed himself incarnate Love,
Bade every man forgive his enemy.
 

Moranzone [sneeringly]

 
That was in Palestine, not Padua;
And said for saints: I have to do with men.
 

Guido

 
It was for all time said.
 

Moranzone

 
And your white Duchess,
What will she do to thank you?
 

Guido

 
Alas, I will not see her face again.
’Tis but twelve hours since I parted from her,
So suddenly, and with such violent passion,
That she has shut her heart against me now:
No, I will never see her.
 

Moranzone

 
What will you do?
 

Guido

 
After that I have laid the dagger there,
Get hence to-night from Padua.
 

Moranzone

 
And then?
 

Guido

 
I will take service with the Doge at Venice,
And bid him pack me straightway to the wars,
And there I will, being now sick of life,
Throw that poor life against some desperate spear.
 

[A groan from the Duke’s chamber again.]

 
Did you not hear a voice?
 

Moranzone

 
I always hear,
From the dim confines of some sepulchre,
A voice that cries for vengeance.  We waste time,
It will be morning soon; are you resolved
You will not kill the Duke?
 

Guido

 
I am resolved.
 

Moranzone

 
O wretched father, lying unavenged.
 

Guido

 
More wretched, were thy son a murderer.
 

Moranzone

 
Why, what is life?
 

Guido

 
I do not know, my lord,
I did not give it, and I dare not take it.
 

Moranzone

 
I do not thank God often; but I think
I thank him now that I have got no son!
And you, what bastard blood flows in your veins
That when you have your enemy in your grasp
You let him go!  I would that I had left you
With the dull hinds that reared you.
 

Guido

 
Better perhaps
That you had done so!  May be better still
I’d not been born to this distressful world.
 

Moranzone

 
Farewell!
 

Guido

 
Farewell!  Some day, Lord Moranzone,
You will understand my vengeance.
 

Moranzone

 
Never, boy.
 

[Gets out of window and exit by rope ladder.]

Guido

 
Father, I think thou knowest my resolve,
And with this nobler vengeance art content.
Father, I think in letting this man live
That I am doing what thou wouldst have done.
Father, I know not if a human voice
Can pierce the iron gateway of the dead,
Or if the dead are set in ignorance
Of what we do, or do not, for their sakes.
And yet I feel a presence in the air,
There is a shadow standing at my side,
And ghostly kisses seem to touch my lips,
And leave them holier.  [Kneels down.]
O father, if ’tis thou,
Canst thou not burst through the decrees of death,
And if corporeal semblance show thyself,
That I may touch thy hand!
No, there is nothing.  [Rises.]
’Tis the night that cheats us with its phantoms,
And, like a puppet-master, makes us think
That things are real which are not.  It grows late.
Now must I to my business.
 

[Pulls out a letter from his doublet and reads it.]

 
When he wakes,
And sees this letter, and the dagger with it,
Will he not have some loathing for his life,
Repent, perchance, and lead a better life,
Or will he mock because a young man spared
His natural enemy?  I do not care.
Father, it is thy bidding that I do,
Thy bidding, and the bidding of my love
Which teaches me to know thee as thou art.
 

[Ascends staircase stealthily, and just as he reaches out his hand to draw back the curtain the Duchess appears all in white. Guido starts back.]

Duchess

 
Guido! what do you here so late?
 

Guido

 
O white and spotless angel of my life,
Sure thou hast come from Heaven with a message
That mercy is more noble than revenge?
 

Duchess

 
There is no barrier between us now.
 

Guido

 
None, love, nor shall be.
 

Duchess

 
I have seen to that.
 

Guido

 
Tarry here for me.
 

Duchess

 
No, you are not going?
You will not leave me as you did before?
 

Guido

 
I will return within a moment’s space,
But first I must repair to the Duke’s chamber,
And leave this letter and this dagger there,
That when he wakes —
 

Duchess

 
When who wakes?
 

Guido

 
Why, the Duke.
 

Duchess

 
He will not wake again.
 

Guido

 
What, is he dead?
 

Duchess

 
Ay! he is dead.
 

Guido

 
O God! how wonderful
Are all thy secret ways!  Who would have said
That on this very night, when I had yielded
Into thy hands the vengeance that is thine,
Thou with thy finger wouldst have touched the man,
And bade him come before thy judgment seat.
 

Duchess

 
I have just killed him.
 

Guido [in horror]

 
Oh!
 

Duchess

 
He was asleep;
Come closer, love, and I will tell you all.
I had resolved to kill myself to-night.
About an hour ago I waked from sleep,
And took my dagger from beneath my pillow,
Where I had hidden it to serve my need,
And drew it from the sheath, and felt the edge,
And thought of you, and how I loved you, Guido,
And turned to fall upon it, when I marked
The old man sleeping, full of years and sin;
There lay he muttering curses in his sleep,
And as I looked upon his evil face
Suddenly like a flame there flashed across me,
There is the barrier which Guido spoke of:
You said there lay a barrier between us,
What barrier but he? —
I hardly know
What happened, but a steaming mist of blood
Rose up between us two.
 

Guido

 
Oh, horrible!
 

Duchess

 
And then he groaned,
And then he groaned no more!  I only heard
The dripping of the blood upon the floor.
 

Guido

 
Enough, enough.
 

Duchess

 
Will you not kiss me now?
Do you remember saying that women’s love
Turns men to angels? well, the love of man
Turns women into martyrs; for its sake
We do or suffer anything.
 

Guido

 
O God!
 

Duchess

 
Will you not speak?
 

Guido

 
I cannot speak at all.
 

Duchess

 
Let as not talk of this!  Let us go hence:
Is not the barrier broken down between us?
What would you more?  Come, it is almost morning.
 

[Puts her hand on Guido’s.]

Guido [breaking from her]

 
O damned saint!  O angel fresh from Hell!
What bloody devil tempted thee to this!
That thou hast killed thy husband, that is nothing —
Hell was already gaping for his soul —
But thou hast murdered Love, and in its place
Hast set a horrible and bloodstained thing,
Whose very breath breeds pestilence and plague,
And strangles Love.
 

Duchess [in amazed wonder]

 
I did it all for you.
I would not have you do it, had you willed it,
For I would keep you without blot or stain,
A thing unblemished, unassailed, untarnished.
Men do not know what women do for love.
Have I not wrecked my soul for your dear sake,
Here and hereafter?
 

Guido

 
No, do not touch me,
Between us lies a thin red stream of blood;
I dare not look across it: when you stabbed him
You stabbed Love with a sharp knife to the heart.
We cannot meet again.
 

Duchess [wringing her hands]

 
For you!  For you!
I did it all for you: have you forgotten?
You said there was a barrier between us;
That barrier lies now i’ the upper chamber
Upset, overthrown, beaten, and battered down,
And will not part us ever.
 

Guido

 
No, you mistook:
Sin was the barrier, you have raised it up;
Crime was the barrier, you have set it there.
The barrier was murder, and your hand
Has builded it so high it shuts out heaven,
It shuts out God.
 

Duchess

 
I did it all for you;
You dare not leave me now: nay, Guido, listen.
Get horses ready, we will fly to-night.
The past is a bad dream, we will forget it:
Before us lies the future: shall we not have
Sweet days of love beneath our vines and laugh? —
No, no, we will not laugh, but, when we weep,
Well, we will weep together; I will serve you;
I will be very meek and very gentle:
You do not know me.
 

Guido

 
Nay, I know you now;
Get hence, I say, out of my sight.
 

Duchess [pacing up and down]

 
O God,
How I have loved this man!
 

Guido

 
You never loved me.
Had it been so, Love would have stayed your hand.
How could we sit together at Love’s table?
You have poured poison in the sacred wine,
And Murder dips his fingers in the sop.
 

Duchess [throws herself on her knees]

 
Then slay me now!  I have spilt blood to-night,
You shall spill more, so we go hand in hand
To heaven or to hell.  Draw your sword, Guido.
Quick, let your soul go chambering in my heart,
It will but find its master’s image there.
Nay, if you will not slay me with your sword,
Bid me to fall upon this reeking knife,
And I will do it.
 

Guido [wresting knife from her]

 
Give it to me, I say.
O God, your very hands are wet with blood!
This place is Hell, I cannot tarry here.
I pray you let me see your face no more.
 

Duchess

 
Better for me I had not seen your face.
 

[Guido recoils: she seizes his hands as she kneels.]

 
Nay, Guido, listen for a while:
Until you came to Padua I lived
Wretched indeed, but with no murderous thought,
Very submissive to a cruel Lord,
Very obedient to unjust commands,
As pure I think as any gentle girl
Who now would turn in horror from my hands —
 

[Stands up.]

 
You came: ah!  Guido, the first kindly words
I ever heard since I had come from France
Were from your lips: well, well, that is no matter.
You came, and in the passion of your eyes
I read love’s meaning; everything you said
Touched my dumb soul to music, so I loved you.
And yet I did not tell you of my love.
’Twas you who sought me out, knelt at my feet
As I kneel now at yours, and with sweet vows,
 

[Kneels.]

 
Whose music seems to linger in my ears,
Swore that you loved me, and I trusted you.
I think there are many women in the world
Who would have tempted you to kill the man.
I did not.
Yet I know that had I done so,
I had not been thus humbled in the dust,
 

[Stands up.]

 
But you had loved me very faithfully.
 

[After a pause approaches him timidly.]

 
I do not think you understand me, Guido:
It was for your sake that I wrought this deed
Whose horror now chills my young blood to ice,
For your sake only.  [Stretching out her arm.]
Will you not speak to me?
Love me a little: in my girlish life
I have been starved for love, and kindliness
Has passed me by.
 

Guido

 
I dare not look at you:
You come to me with too pronounced a favour;
Get to your tirewomen.
 

Duchess

 
Ay, there it is!
There speaks the man! yet had you come to me
With any heavy sin upon your soul,
Some murder done for hire, not for love,
Why, I had sat and watched at your bedside
All through the night-time, lest Remorse might come
And pour his poisons in your ear, and so
Keep you from sleeping!  Sure it is the guilty,
Who, being very wretched, need love most.
 

Guido

 
There is no love where there is any guilt.
 

Duchess

 
No love where there is any guilt!  O God,
How differently do we love from men!
There is many a woman here in Padua,
Some workman’s wife, or ruder artisan’s,
Whose husband spends the wages of the week
In a coarse revel, or a tavern brawl,
And reeling home late on the Saturday night,
Finds his wife sitting by a fireless hearth,
Trying to hush the child who cries for hunger,
And then sets to and beats his wife because
The child is hungry, and the fire black.
Yet the wife loves him! and will rise next day
With some red bruise across a careworn face,
And sweep the house, and do the common service,
And try and smile, and only be too glad
If he does not beat her a second time
Before her child! – that is how women love.
 

[A pause: Guido says nothing.]

 
I think you will not drive me from your side.
Where have I got to go if you reject me? —
You for whose sake this hand has murdered life,
You for whose sake my soul has wrecked itself
Beyond all hope of pardon.
 

Guido

 
Get thee gone:
The dead man is a ghost, and our love too,
Flits like a ghost about its desolate tomb,
And wanders through this charnel house, and weeps
That when you slew your lord you slew it also.
Do you not see?
 

Duchess

 
I see when men love women
They give them but a little of their lives,
But women when they love give everything;
I see that, Guido, now.
 

Guido

 
Away, away,
And come not back till you have waked your dead.
 

Duchess

 
I would to God that I could wake the dead,
Put vision in the glazéd eves, and give
The tongue its natural utterance, and bid
The heart to beat again: that cannot be:
For what is done, is done: and what is dead
Is dead for ever: the fire cannot warm him:
The winter cannot hurt him with its snows;
Something has gone from him; if you call him now,
He will not answer; if you mock him now,
He will not laugh; and if you stab him now
He will not bleed.
I would that I could wake him!
O God, put back the sun a little space,
And from the roll of time blot out to-night,
And bid it not have been!  Put back the sun,
And make me what I was an hour ago!
No, no, time will not stop for anything,
Nor the sun stay its courses, though Repentance
Calling it back grow hoarse; but you, my love,
Have you no word of pity even for me?
O Guido, Guido, will you not kiss me once?
Drive me not to some desperate resolve:
Women grow mad when they are treated thus:
Will you not kiss me once?
 

Guido [holding up knife]