- 500 pages
- English
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The Plays Of Oscar Wilde
About This Book
Featuring the entirety of Oscar Wilde's dramatic works, this collection demonstrates the author's wide range, unerring wit, and unique perspective. Bringing together Wilde's most famous plays, including The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband, and Lady Windermere's Fan, along with rare and incomplete dramas like Salome and Vera, this compendium is an important resource for any fan or student of Wilde's dramatic works.
Often considered ahead of his time, the plays of Oscar Wilde continue to resonate with modern audiences and many have been adapted for film and television, including the 2002 film The Importance of Being Earnest, starring Judi Dench and Colin Firth.
HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.
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The Duchess of Padua
The Persons of the Play
ACT ONE
Thou art the same in mould and lineament,
Carriage and form, and outward semblances;
I trust thou art in noble mind the same.
Has followed me to Padua; as two brothers,
There is no secret which we do not share.
Bid him go hence.
He does not know that nothing in this world
Can dim the perfect mirror of our love.
Within the hour come.
There is a dreadful terror in his look.
That I am some great Lord of Italy,
And we will have long days of joy together.
Within the hour, dear Ascanio.
I warrant he looked tall upon his horse.
His hair was black? Or perhaps a reddish gold,
Like a red fire of gold? Was his voice low?
The very bravest men have voices sometimes
Full of low music; or a clarion was it
That brake with terror all his enemies?
Did he ride singly? Or with many squires
And valiant gentlemen to serve his taste?
For oftentimes methinks I feel my veins
Beat with the blood of kings. Was he a king?
He was set high above the heads of men?
Set for his neck.
That like a raven, or the midnight owl,
Com’st with this awful message from the grave?
Lord of a barren castle on a rock,
With a few acres of unkindly land
And six not thrifty servants. But I was one
Of Parma’s noblest princes; more than that,
I was your father’s friend.
Whose banner waved on many a well-fought field
Against the Saracen, and heretic Turk,
He was the Prince of Parma, and the Duke
Of all the fair domains of Lombardy
Down to the gates of Florence; nay, Florence even
Was wont to pay him tribute –
O noble lion of war, that would not suffer
Injustice done in Italy – he led
The very flower of chivalry against
That foul adulterous Lord of Rimini,
Giovanni Malatesta – whom God curse!
And was by him in treacherous ambush taken,
And was by him in common fetters bound,
And like a villain, or a low-born knave,
Was by him on the public scaffold murdered.
Couldst thou not wait for me a little space,
And I had done thy bidding!
The man who sold thy father is alive.
Like a vile chattel, for a price betrayed,
Bartered and bargained for in privy market
By one whom he had held his perfect friend,
One he had trusted, one he had well loved,
One whom by ties of kindness he had bound –
Oh! To sow seeds of kindness in this world
Is but to reap ingratitude!
Who sold my father.
This world thy field of blood, so buy it straightway,
For thou must hang there.
Yes, Judas in his treachery, but still
He was more wise than Judas was, and held
Those thirty silver pieces not enough.
Why cities, fiefs, and principalities,
Vineyards, and lands.
Six feet of ground to rot in. Where is he,
This damned villain, this foul dev...
Table of contents
- CONTENTS
- The Importance of Being Earnest
- Lady Windermere’s Fan
- A Woman of No Importance
- An Ideal Husband
- Salomé
- The Duchess of Padua
- Vera, or the Nihilists
- A Florentine Tragedy
- La Sainte Courtisane, or the Woman Covered with Jewels
- About the Author
- About the Series
- Copyright
- About the Publisher