Oscar Wilde Complete Works – World’s Best Collection E-Book

Oscar Wilde

• Herausgeber: Imagination Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Seitenzahl: 5066

Beschreibung

Oscar Wilde Complete Works World's Best Collection

This is the world’s best Oscar Wilde collection, including the most complete set of Wilde’s works available plus many free bonus materials.

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day, known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill. Themes in his writings include decadence, duplicity, beauty and biting satire.

Wilde is also known for his famous arrest and imprisonment, for the crime (at that time) of homosexuality.During his last year in prison, he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in 1905), a long letter which discusses his spiritual journey through his trials, forming a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure.

Wilde’s life and work remain some of the most popular subjects in English literature and the themes of his work echo as strongly today as they did in his own time

The ‘Must-Have’ Complete Collection

In this irresistible collection you get a full set of Wilde’s work, with more than 140 works - All plays, All poetry, All books, All fiction, All short work, and his own autobiography. With two full length biographies, one written by Wilde’s lover. Plus extra Free Bonus material.

Works Included:

Plays, Including:

Vera (The Nihilists)

Ideal Husband

Importance Of Being Earnest

Salome 

Books

Picture Of Dorian Gray

De Profundis

Children’s Fiction

Wilde’s fairy tales and children’s fiction are surprising, heart wrenching, full of humor, for the young, old and all literature lovers.

Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime And Other Stories

Happy Prince And Other Tales

House Of Pomegranates

Poetry

More than 100 beautiful poems that demand reading and rereading. Included is ‘the Ballad of Reading Gaol’ about Wilde’s time in prison and the award winning ‘Ravenna’

Shorter Works

Wilde was a keen observer, and his short work includes his views on life and society that are still relevant to today’s world. The shorter works include:

Some Remarks Upon The Importance Of Doing Nothing

Truth Of Masks

Soul Of Man

Books About Wilde

Both biographies cover Wilde’s entire life, imprisonment and career.

Oscar Wilde, His Life And Confessions - Written by close friend and editor, Frank Harris.

Oscar Wilde And Myself - The famous book by Wilde’s lover, Alfred Douglas, giving a more personal view.

Your Free Special Bonuses

Art And Morality - A Defence Of Dorian Gray - Controversial, Dorian Gray was much discussed in the press. Here is the ‘story’ of the controversy told through press articles and Wilde’s letters in response.

Critic In Pall Mall and Reviews - Wilde’s sharp reviews

Historical Context and Literary Context Notes - Detailed explanations of the Victorian Era and Victorian Literature, written specially for this collection.

Get This Collection Right Now

This is the best Oscar Wilde collection you can get, so get it now and start enjoying and being inspired by the words inside like never before!

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

OSCAR WILDE - HISTORICAL CONTEXT – THE VICTORIAN ERA

VERA; OR, THE NIHILISTS.

THE DUCHESS OF PADUA

LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN

A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE

AN IDEAL HUSBAND

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST A TRIVIAL COMEDY FOR SERIOUS PEOPLE

A FLORENTINE TRAGEDY/LA SAINTE COURTISANE

LOVE OF THE KING A BURMESE MASQUE

SALOME ENGLISH

SALOME FRENCH

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

DE PROFUNDIS - POSTHUMOUS

CHILDREN'S FICTION

POEMS IN PROSE

POETRY

OSCAR WILDE--SHORTER PROSE PIECES

ESSAYS AND LECTURES

OSCAR WILDE, HIS LIFE AND CONFESSIONS

OSCAR WILDE ART AND MORALITY A DEFENCE OF "THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY"

OSCAR WILDE & MYSELF

OSCAR WILDE COMPLETE WORKS WORLD’S BEST COLLECTION

Editor Darryl Marks

OSCAR WILDE COMPLETE WORKS WORLD’S BEST COLLECTION - Original Publication Dates The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) Intentions (1891) The Soul of Man under Socialism(1904) Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young (First published in the Oxford student magazine The Chameleon, December, 1894) A Few Maxims For The Instruction Of The Over-Educated (First published, anonymously, in the 1894 November 17 issue of Saturday Review.) Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories (1891) The Happy Prince and Other Stories (1888) A House of Pomegranates (1891) Ravenna (1878) Poems (1881) The Sphinx (1894) Poems in Prose (1894) The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898) Vera; or, The Nihilists (1880) The Duchess of Padua (1883) Salomé (French version) (1893) Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) A Woman of No Importance (1893) Salome (English Version)(1894) An Ideal Husband (1895) For the Love of a King (1922) The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) La Sainte Courtisane and A Florentine Tragedy Fragmentary (1908) De Profundis (Written 1896-7, Expurgated edition published 1905) Essays and Lectures The Rise of Historical Criticism (1909) Critic in Pall Mall (1919) Miscellanies, Reviews, Selected Prose (circa 1908) Oscar Wilde and Myself (1914) Art and Morality (1908) Oscar Wilde – His Life and Confessions (1916) First Imagination Books edition of ‘OSCAR WILDE ULTIMATE COLLECTION’ published 2018 "HISTORICAL CONTEXT: THE VICTORIAN ERA " Copyright © 2018 by Darryl Alan Marks and Infinite Eternity Entertainment LLC All Rights Reserved.

OSCAR WILDE - HISTORICAL CONTEXT – THE VICTORIAN ERA

The Victorian Era

The Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901.

The era followed the Georgian period (and Regency Period ) and preceded the Edwardian period

From a historical point of view, in terms of moral sensibilities and political reforms, the period can arguably be said to have begun with the passing of the Reform Act of 1832.

Ideologically, the Victorian era witnessed resistance to the rationalism that defined the Georgian period and an increasing turn towards romanticism and even mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and arts.

Religiously, there was a strong drive for higher moral standards. Indeed, moral standards improved very dramatically, especially for the middle class. As will be explained, this resulted in the idea of the typical Victorian – upstanding, moral, working to better him/herself and working towards the greater good for all society, in and outside of the empire.

From this stand point, term ‘Victorian Morality’ is often used to describe the people and the belief system of the era - this encompassed sexual proprietary, hard work, honesty, thriftiness, a sense of duty and responsibility towards the less well-off who deserved help.

The negative aspects of this typical ‘Victorian personality’ has also led to Victorians be characterized as stodgy, stuck up, preachy and stoic.

In England itself, there was an increasing shift towards social and political reform, in real terms. Indeed, when Victorians spoke about justice, ending poverty or child-labor and about improving the quality of life, they meant it and they meant it not just for their own country.

Other notable elements of typical Victorian Era people included:

Moral values such as Sabbath observance, responsibility, charitably charity, discipline in the home, and self-examination for the smallest faults and needs of improvement.

Historians continue to debate the various causes of this dramatic change and the ‘creation’ of the Victorian morality. Some emphasize the strong reaction against the French Revolution (1789 onwards). There was also the powerful role of the evangelical movement among religious organizations of the time and factions inside the established Church of England. These religious and political reformers set up organizations (with growing number of followers) that monitored behavior and pushed for government action.

Class Structure

In terms of this shift, between 1780 and 1850 the English ceased to be one of the most aggressive, brutal, rowdy, outspoken, riotous, cruel and bloodthirsty nations in the world and became one of the most inhibited, polite, orderly, tender-minded, prudish and hypocritical.

Among the higher social classes, there was less gambling, horse races, obscene theatres and prostitution. The debauchery of aristocratic England in the early 19th century simply disappeared.

In England itself, politics became increasingly liberal with shifts in the direction of gradual political reform and industrial reform.

The two main political parties during the era were the Whigs/Liberals and the Conservatives, and by the end of the Victorian Era, the Labour Party had formed as a distinct political entity.

Literature

The problem with the classification of "Victorian literature" is the difference between early works and later works of periods, the later works said to have more in common with the writers of the Edwardian period. Many writers straddle this divide.

Victorian literature is preceded by Romanticism and Realism and Modernism, and in some way can be said to be a mixture of both schools of literature and arts. It could be called a fusion of romantic and realist style of writing.

There were, however significant differences.

Firstly, in the Romantic period, poetry had been the dominant genre, but in the Victorian Eras, the novel became the dominant form of entertainment. The novel itself, as a concept of entertainment vehicle, had not been popular for many years, in neglect since the 1830s, but grew in popularity during this period.

Victorian novels showed idealized portraits of difficult lives in which hard work, perseverance, love and luck win out in the end.

This encapsulated the Victorian morality of improvement and betterment in life, with a central moral lesson at heart. This changed in tone and style as the century progressed and life began to change.

Some of the most famous novelists from this Victorian Era include:

Charles Dickens (1812–1870) – He dominated the first part of Victoria's reign, starting with his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, (written when he was 25 and published in 1836). His works often had a satirical edge and through his popular writing, he also highlighted social problems and the plight of the poor and oppressed.

William Makepeace Thackeray's (1811–1863) – His most famous work Vanity Fair appeared in 1848.

The Brontë sisters, Charlotte (1816–55), Emily (1818–48) and Anne (1820–49) – they published significant works in the 1840s, including the Gothic-influenced Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. Anne's second novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) was written in realistic rather than romantic style and is mainly considered to be the first sustained feminist novels.

George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) - Middlemarch (1872) was a later work in the last part of the Victorian era, and is regarded by many as the greatest British novel ever written.

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) - Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) Jude the Obscure (1895) are also later Victorian era novels that are extremely, highly regarded.

Lewis Carroll, R. M. Ballantyne and Anna Sewell wrote mainly for children, although they had an adult following – Lewis Carroll’s works produced a new genre of writing, known as Nonsense Verse or Nonsense Poetry.

Another major movement in Victorian literature was a tendency towards darker themes and Gothic imagery. These tales often revolved around larger-than-life characters such as Sherlock Holmes, and other flamboyant and individual fictional characters such as Dracula, Edward Hyde and The Invisible Man who often had exotic enemies to foil.

This Gothic literature combined romance and horror, to thrill and terrify the reader with foreign monsters, ghosts, curses, hidden rooms and witchcraft.

This resurgence in Gothic themes is even evident in Oscar Wilde’s ‘A Picture of Dorian Gray’.

Poetry

Much of the poetical work of the time is seen as a bridge between the romantic era and the modernist poetry of the next century.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning (1812–89) and Alfred Tennyson (1809–92) were Victorian England's most famous poets. Alfred Lord Tennyson held the poet laureateship of England for over forty years, and the works of the Browning’s produced many beautiful, tender and passionate poems, during the period when they conducted their love affair through letters and verse.

One of the aspects of much of Victorian Literature was a renewed interest in both classical literature and medieval literature.

The stories of heroism and chivalry, of knights and nobility, of honor and kinship, became important again. In a way, this renewed interest echoed the Victorian morality of the day, and the heroism and noble, courtly behavior of the characters was in some way imparted onto Victorian society and the empire itself.

The best example of this is Alfred Tennyson's ‘Idylls of the King’, where he blended legends of King Arthur with contemporary ideas.

Theatre

It was not until the last decades of the nineteenth century that any significant works were produced. This began with Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas, from the 1870s, various plays of George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) in the 1890s, and Oscar Wilde's (1854–1900) The Importance of Being Earnest, which held an ironic mirror to the aristocracy while displaying virtuosic mastery of wit and paradoxical wisdom.

Scientific Books

The Victorian era was an important time for the development of science and one book in particular remains famous as both a work of ‘literature’, a dividing line in society, and an example of this Victorian era scientific development - Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, with his theory of evolution, challenged many of the ideas the Victorians had.

Common themes in Victorian Literature

There are several characteristics of Victorian Literature:

Firstly, as said, literature in the Victorian age tended to come face to face with realism. They focused more on real people, real problems and practical interests. In this way, the literature also became a powerful instrument for human progress.

Victorian literature also seems to deviate from the idea of “art for art’s sake” and asserts its moral purpose – it had a message to state besides just entertainment.

Lastly, there was more pessimism and confusion within the age and this was reflected in the works.

Famous Victorian novelists and poets include: Matthew Arnold, the Bronte sisters, Christina Rossetti, Joseph Conrad, Robert Browning, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, George Eliot, George Meredith, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Gissing, Richard Jefferies, Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Philip Meadows Taylor, Alfred Lord Tennyson biography, William Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, George MacDonald, G.M. Hopkins, Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll.

Event Timeline of the Victorian Era:

1832

Passing of the first Reform Act.

The 1843 launch of the Great Britain, the revolutionary ship of Isambard Kingdom Brunel

1837

Ascension of Queen Victoria to the throne.

1838

Treaty of Balta Liman (Great Britain trade alliance with the Ottoman Empire)

1839

First Opium War (1839–42) fought between Britain and China.

1840

Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield. He had been naturalised and granted the British style of Royal Highness beforehand. For the next 17 years, he was known as HRH Prince Albert.

1840

New Zealand becomes a British colony, through the Treaty of Waitangi. No longer part of New South Wales

First Opium War: British ships approaching Canton in May 1841

1842

The Mines Act of 1842 banned women/children from working in coal, iron, lead and tin mining.

1845

The Irish famine begins. Within 5 years it would become the UK's worst human disaster, with starvation and emigration reducing the population of Ireland itself by over 50%. The famine permanently changed Ireland's and Scotland's demographics and became a rallying point for nationalist sentiment that pervaded British politics for much of the following century.

1846

Repeal of the Corn Laws.

1848

Death of around 2,000 people a week in a cholera epidemic.

The last of the mail coaches at Newcastle upon Tyne, 1848

1850

Restoration of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales. (Scotland did not follow until 1878.)

1851

The Great Exhibition (the first World's Fair) is held at the Crystal Palace.

1854

Crimean War: Britain, France and Turkey declare limited war on Russia. Russia loses.

1857

The Indian Mutiny, a concentrated revolt in northern India against the rule of the privatey owned British East India Company.

1858

The Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, responds to the Orsini plot against French emperor Napoleon III, the bombs for which were purchased in Birmingham, by attempting to make such acts a felony; the resulting uproar forces him to resign.

1859

Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species, which leads to various reactions.

Victoria and Albert's first grandchild, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, is born — he later became William II, German Emperor.

1861

Death of Prince Albert - Queen Victoria refuses to go out in public for many years, and when she did she wore a widow's bonnet instead of the crown.

1865

Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is published.

1876

Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.

1879

The Battle of Isandlwana is the first major encounter in the Anglo-Zulu War.

Following the Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War in 1896, the British proclaimed a protectorate over the Ashanti Kingdom.

1881

The British suffer defeat at the Battle of Majuba Hill, leading to the signing of a peace treaty and later the Pretoria Convention, between the British and the reinstated South African Republic, ending the First Boer War. Sometimes claimed to mark the beginning of the decline of the British Empire.

1882

British troops begin the occupation of Egypt by taking the Suez Canal, to secure the vital trade route and passage to India, and the country becomes a protectorate.

1885

Blackpool Electric Tramway Company starts the first electric tram service in the United Kingdom.

1886

Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone and the Liberal Party tries passing the First Irish Home Rule Bill, but the House of Commons rejects it.

1888

The serial killer known as Jack the Ripper murders and mutilates five (and possibly more) prostitutes on the streets of London.

1889

British and Australian officers in South Africa during the Second Boer War

1898

British and Egyptian troops led by Horatio Kitchener defeat the Mahdist forces at the battle of Omdurman, thus establishing British dominance in the Sudan. Winston Churchill takes part in the British cavalry charge at Omdurman.

1899

The Second Boer War is fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics. The Boers finally surrendered and the British annexed the Boer republics.

1901

The death of Victoria sees the end of this era. The ascension of her eldest son, Edward, begins the Edwardian era.

Changes in Society

The joke goes that Victorians were so prudish they even covered piano legs with little pantalettes. Even saying the word "leg" at all was sometimes considered scandalous.

Although many see Victorians as stiff, proper, old-fashioned, it must be remembered that there were great changes, both social, political and industrial that occurred during the Victorian era that helped propel the Empire and the world into the next century.

Examples include:

The invention of railways, photography, electricity and the telegraph.

Political reform and social movement, specifically the rapid rise of the middle class, which helped displace the complete control the aristocrats had long exercised.

The abolishing of slavery movement.

The creation of the concept of Agnosticism and Free Thinking.

The rise of the concept of Feminisim, changing the traditional view of women as only being involved with the running of the household and raising of children.

Abolishing and reform in terms of child slavery and child labor.

Legacy

The legacy of the Victorian era continues through its literature, music and art, through technological and scientific advances that still enrich human life. One significant aspect of Victorian morality was its focus on public duty and responsibility, its eschewing of vices and lecherous behavior, all of which still echoes around the world today.

Timeline of Literary and Art Movements

Timeline of English history

Prehistoric Britainuntil c. 43

Roman Britainc. 43–410

Anglo-Saxonc. 500–1066

Norman1066–1154

Plantagenet1154–1485

Tudor1485–1603

Elizabethan1558–1603

Stuart1603–1714

Jacobean1603–1625

Caroline1625–1649

(Interregnum)1649–1660

Restoration1660–1714

Georgian1714–1837

Regency1811–1820

Victorian1837–1901

Edwardian1901–1914

First World War1914–1918

Interwar Britain1918–1939

Second World War1939–1945

VERA; OR, THE NIHILISTS.

A DRAMA IN A PROLOGUE, AND FOUR ACTS.

PERSONS IN THE PROLOGUE.

PETER SABOUROFF (an Innkeeper).

VERA SABOUROFF (his Daughter).

MICHAEL (a Peasant).

COLONEL KOTEMKIN.

Scene, Russia. Time, 1795.

PERSONS IN THE PLAY.

IVAN THE CZAR.

PRINCE PAUL MARALOFFSKI (Prime Minister of Russia).

PRINCE PETROVITCH.

COUNT ROUVALOFF.

MARQUIS DE POIVRARD.

BARON RAFF.

GENERAL KOTEMKIN.

A PAGE.

Nihilists.

PETER TCHERNAVITCH, President of the Nihilists.

MICHAEL.

ALEXIS IVANACIEVITCH, known as a Student of Medicine.

PROFESSOR MARFA.

VERA SABOUROFF.

Soldiers, Conspirators, etc.

Scene, Moscow. Time, 1800.

PROLOGUE.

SCENE.--A Russian Inn.

Large door opening on snowy landscape at back of stage.

PETER SABOUROFF and MICHAEL.

PETER (warming his hands at a stove). Has Vera not come back yet,

Michael?

MICH. No, Father Peter, not yet; 'tis a good three miles to the post

office, and she has to milk the cows besides, and that dun one is a rare

plaguey creature for a wench to handle.

PETER. Why didn't you go with her, you young fool? she'll never love you

unless you are always at her heels; women like to be bothered.

MICH. She says I bother her too much already, Father Peter, and I fear

she'll never love me after all.

PETER. Tut, tut, boy, why shouldn't she? you're young and wouldn't be

ill-favoured either, had God or thy mother given thee another face.

Aren't you one of Prince Maraloffski's gamekeepers; and haven't you got

a good grass farm, and the best cow in the village? What more does a

girl want?

MICH. But Vera, Father Peter--

PETER. Vera, my lad, has got too many ideas; I don't think much of ideas

myself; I've got on well enough in life without 'em; why shouldn't my

children? There's Dmitri! could have stayed here and kept the inn; many

a young lad would have jumped at the offer in these hard times; but he,

scatter-brained featherhead of a boy, must needs go off to Moscow to

study the law! What does he want knowing about the law! let a man do his

duty, say I, and no one will trouble him.

MICH. Ay! but Father Peter, they say a good lawyer can break the law as

often as he likes, and no one can say him nay.

PETER. That is about all they are good for; and there he stays, and has

not written a line to us for four months now--a good son that, eh?

MICH. Come, come, Father Peter, Dmitri's letters must have gone

astray--perhaps the new postman can't read; he looks stupid enough, and

Dmitri, why, he was the best fellow in the village. Do you remember how

he shot the bear at the barn in the great winter?

PETER. Ay, it was a good shot; I never did a better myself.

MICH. And as for dancing, he tired out three fiddlers Christmas come two

years.

PETER. Ay, ay, he was a merry lad. It is the girl that has the

seriousness--she goes about as solemn as a priest for days at a time.

MICH. Vera is always thinking of others.

PETER. There is her mistake, boy. Let God and our Little Father look to

the world. It is none of my work to mend my neighbour's thatch. Why,

last winter old Michael was frozen to death in his sleigh in the

snowstorm, and his wife and children starved afterwards when the hard

times came; but what business was it of mine? I didn't make the world.

Let God and the Czar look to it. And then the blight came, and the black

plague with it, and the priests couldn't bury the people fast enough,

and they lay dead on the roads--men and women both. But what business

was it of mine? I didn't make the world. Let God and the Czar look to

it. Or two autumns ago, when the river overflowed on a sudden, and the

children's school was carried away and drowned every girl and boy in it.

I didn't make the world--let God and the Czar look to it.

MICH. But, Father Peter--

PETER. No, no, boy; no man could live if he took his neighbour's pack

on his shoulders. (Enter VERA in peasant's dress.) Well, my girl,

you've been long enough away--where is the letter?

VERA. There is none to-day, Father.

PETER. I knew it.

VERA. But there will be one to-morrow, Father.

PETER. Curse him, for an ungrateful son.

VERA. Oh, Father, don't say that; he must be sick.

PETER. Ay! sick of profligacy, perhaps.

VERA. How dare you say that of him, Father? You know that is not true.

PETER. Where does the money go, then? Michael, listen. I gave Dmitri

half his mother's fortune to bring with him to pay the lawyer folk of

Moscow. He has only written three times, and every time for more money.

He got it, not at my wish, but at hers (pointing to VERA), and now for

five months, close on six almost, we have heard nothing from him.

VERA. Father, he will come back.

PETER. Ay! the prodigals always return; but let him never darken my

doors again.

VERA (sitting down pensive). Some evil has come on him; he must be

dead! Oh! Michael, I am so wretched about Dmitri.

MICH. Will you never love any one but him, Vera?

VERA (smiling). I don't know; there is so much else to do in the world

but love.

MICH. Nothing else worth doing, Vera.

PETER. What noise is that, Vera? (A metallic clink is heard.)

VERA (rising and going to the door). I don't know, Father; it is not

like the cattle bells, or I would think Nicholas had come from the fair.

Oh! Father! it is soldiers!--coming down the hill--there is one of them

on horseback. How pretty they look! But there are some men with them

with chains on! They must be robbers. Oh! don't let them in, Father; I

couldn't look at them.

PETER. Men in chains! Why, we are in luck, my child! I heard this was to

be the new road to Siberia, to bring the prisoners to the mines; but I

didn't believe it. My fortune is made! Bustle, Vera, bustle! I'll die a

rich man after all. There will be no lack of good customers now. An

honest man should have the chance of making his living out of rascals

now and then.

VERA. Are these men rascals, Father? What have they done?

PETER. I reckon they're some of those Nihilists the priest warns us

against. Don't stand there idle, my girl.

VERA. I suppose, then, they are all wicked men.

(Sound of soldiers outside; cry of "Halt!" enter Russian officer with a

body of soldiers and eight men in chains, raggedly dressed; one of them

on entering hurriedly puts his coat above his ears and hides his face;

some soldiers guard the door, others sit down; the prisoners stand.)

COLONEL. Innkeeper!

PETER. Yes, Colonel.

COLONEL (pointing to Nihilists). Give these men some bread and water.

PETER (to himself). I shan't make much out of that order.

COLONEL. As for myself, what have you got fit to eat?

PETER. Some good dried venison, your Excellency--and some rye whisky.

COLONEL. Nothing else?

PETER. Why, more whisky, your Excellency.

COLONEL. What clods these peasants are! You have a better room than

this?

PETER. Yes, sir.

COLONEL. Bring me there. Sergeant, post your picket outside, and see

that these scoundrels do not communicate with any one. No letter

writing, you dogs, or you'll be flogged for it. Now for the venison.

(To PETER bowing before him.) Get out of the way, you fool! Who is

that girl? (sees VERA).

PETER. My daughter, your Highness.

COLONEL. Can she read and write?

PETER. Ay, that she can, sir.

COLONEL. Then she is a dangerous woman. No peasant should be allowed to

do anything of the kind. Till your fields, store your harvests, pay your

taxes, and obey your masters--that is your duty.

VERA. Who are our masters?

COLONEL. Young woman, these men are going to the mines for life for

asking the same foolish question.

VERA. Then they have been unjustly condemned.

PETER. Vera, keep your tongue quiet. She is a foolish girl, sir, who

talks too much.

COLONEL. Every woman does talk too much. Come, where is this venison?

Count, I am waiting for you. How can you see anything in a girl with

coarse hands? (He passes with PETER and his aide-de-camp into an inner

room.)

VERA (to one of the Nihilists). Won't you sit down? you must be tired.

SERGEANT. Come now, young woman, no talking to my prisoners.

VERA. I shall speak to them. How much do you want?

SERGEANT. How much have you?

VERA. Will you let these men sit down if I give you this? (Takes off

her peasant's necklace.) It is all I have; it was my mother's.

SERGEANT. Well, it looks pretty enough, and is heavy too. What do you

want with these men?

VERA. They are hungry and tired. Let me go to them?

ONE OF THE SOLDIERS. Let the wench be, if she pays us.

SERGEANT. Well, have your way. If the Colonel sees you, you may have to

come with us, my pretty one.

VERA (advances to the Nihilists). Sit down; you must be tired.

(Serves them food.) What are you?

A PRISONER. Nihilists.

VERA. Who put you in chains?

PRISONER. Our Father the Czar.

VERA. Why?

PRISONER. For loving liberty too well.

VERA (to prisoner who hides his face). What did you want to do?

DMITRI. To give liberty to thirty millions of people enslaved to one

man.

VERA (startled at the voice). What is your name?

DMITRI. I have no name.

VERA. Where are your friends?

DMITRI. I have no friends.

VERA. Let me see your face!

DMITRI. You will see nothing but suffering in it. They have tortured me.

VERA (tears the cloak from his face). Oh, God! Dmitri! my brother!

DMITRI. Hush! Vera; be calm. You must not let my father know; it would

kill him. I thought I could free Russia. I heard men talk of Liberty one

night in a café. I had never heard the word before. It seemed to be a

new god they spoke of. I joined them. It was there all the money went.

Five months ago they seized us. They found me printing the paper. I am

going to the mines for life. I could not write. I thought it would be

better to let you think I was dead; for they are bringing me to a living

tomb.

VERA (looking round). You must escape, Dmitri. I will take your place.

DMITRI. Impossible! You can only revenge us.

VERA. I shall revenge you.

DMITRI. Listen! there is a house in Moscow--

SERGEANT. Prisoners, attention!--the Colonel is coming--young woman,

your time is up.

(Enter COLONEL, AIDE-DE-CAMP and PETER.)

PETER. I hope your Highness is pleased with the venison. I shot it

myself.

COLONEL. It had been better had you talked less about it. Sergeant, get

ready. (Gives purse to PETER.) Here, you cheating rascal!

PETER. My fortune is made! long live your Highness. I hope your Highness

will come often this way.

COLONEL. By Saint Nicholas, I hope not. It is too cold here for me. (To

VERA.) Young girl, don't ask questions again about what does not

concern you. I will not forget your face.

VERA. Nor I yours, or what you are doing.

COLONEL. You peasants are getting too saucy since you ceased to be

serfs, and the knout is the best school for you to learn politics in.

Sergeant, proceed.

(The COLONEL turns and goes to top of stage. The prisoners pass out

double file; as DMITRI passes VERA he lets a piece of paper fall on the

ground; she puts her foot on it and remains immobile.)

PETER (who has been counting the money the COLONEL gave him). Long

life to your Highness. I will hope to see another batch soon. (Suddenly

catches sight of DMITRI as he is going out of the door, and screams and

rushes up.) Dmitri! Dmitri! my God! what brings you here? he is

innocent, I tell you. I'll pay for him. Take your money (flings money

on the ground), take all I have, give me my son. Villains! Villains!

where are you bringing him?

COLONEL. To Siberia, old man.

PETER. No, no; take me instead.

COLONEL. He is a Nihilist.

PETER. You lie! you lie! He is innocent. (The soldiers force him back

with their guns and shut the door against him. He beats with his fists

against it.) Dmitri! Dmitri! a Nihilist! (Falls down on floor.)

VERA (who has remained motionless, picks up paper now from under her

feet and reads). "99 Rue Tchernavaya, Moscow. To strangle whatever

nature is in me; neither to love nor to be loved; neither to pity nor to

be pitied; neither to marry nor to be given in marriage, till the end is

come." My brother, I shall keep the oath. (Kisses the paper.) You

shall be revenged!

(VERA stands immobile, holding paper in her lifted hand. PETER is lying

on the floor. MICHAEL, who has just come in, is bending over him.)

END OF PROLOGUE.

ACT I.[1]

SCENE.--99 Rue Tchernavaya, Moscow. A large garret lit by oil lamps

hung from ceiling. Some masked men standing silent and apart from one

another. A man in a scarlet mask is writing at a table. Door at back.

Man in yellow with drawn sword at it. Knocks heard. Figures in cloaks

and masks enter.

Password. Per crucem ad lucem.

Answer. Per sanguinem ad libertatem.

(Clock strikes. CONSPIRATORS form a semicircle in the middle of the

stage.)

[2]PRESIDENT. What is the word?

FIRST CONSP. Nabat.

PRES. The answer?

SECOND CONSP. Kalit.

PRES. What hour is it?

THIRD CONSP. The hour to suffer.

PRES. What day?

FOURTH CONSP. The day of oppression.

PRES. What year?

FIFTH CONSP. Since the Revolution of France, the ninth year.[2]

PRES. How many are we in number?

SIXTH CONSP. Ten, nine, and three.

PRES. The Galilæan had less to conquer the world; but what is our

mission?

SEVENTH CONSP. To give freedom.

PRES. Our creed?

EIGHTH CONSP. To annihilate.

PRES. Our duty?

NINTH CONSP. To obey.

PRES. Brothers, the questions have been answered well. There are none

but Nihilists present. Let us see each other's faces. (The CONSPIRATORS

unmask.) Michael, recite the oath.

MICHAEL. To strangle whatever nature is in us; neither to love nor to be

loved, neither to pity nor to be pitied, neither to marry nor to be

given in marriage, till the end is come; to stab secretly by night; to

drop poison in the glass; to set father against son, and husband against

wife; without fear, without hope, without future, to suffer, to

annihilate, to revenge.

PRES. Are we all agreed?

CONSPIRATORS. We are all agreed. (They disperse in various directions

about the stage.)

PRES. 'Tis after the hour, Michael, and she is not yet here.

MICH. Would that she were! We can do little without her.

ALEXIS. She cannot have been seized, President? but the police are on

her track, I know.

MICH. You always seem to know a good deal about the movements of the

police in Moscow--too much for an honest conspirator.

PRES. If those dogs have caught her, [3]the red flag of the people will

float on a barricade in[3] every street till we find her! It was foolish

of her to go to the Grand Duke's ball. I told her so, but she said she

wanted to see the Czar and all his cursed brood face to face once.

ALEXIS. Gone to the State ball?

MICH. I have no fear. She is as hard to capture as a she-wolf is, and

twice as dangerous; besides, she is well disguised. But is there any

news from the Palace to-night, President? What is that bloody[4] despot

doing now besides torturing his only son? Have any of you seen him? One

hears strange stories about him. They say he loves the people; but a

king's son never does that. You cannot breed them like that.

PRES. Since he came back from abroad a year ago his father has kept him

in close prison in his palace.

MICH. An excellent training to make him a tyrant in his turn; but is

there any news, I say?

PRES. A council is to be held to-morrow, at four o'clock, on some secret

business the spies cannot find out.

MICH. A council in a king's palace is sure to be about some bloody work

or other. But in what room is this council to be held?

PRES. (reading from letter). In the yellow tapestry room called after

the Empress Catherine.

MICH. I care not for such long-sounding names. I would know where it is.

PRES. I cannot tell, Michael. I know more about the insides of prisons

than of palaces.

MICH. (speaking suddenly to ALEXIS). Where is this room, Alexis?

ALEXIS. It is on the first floor, looking out on to the inner courtyard.

But why do you ask, Michael?

MICH. Nothing, nothing, boy! I merely take a great interest in the

Czar's life and movements, and I knew you could tell me all about the

palace. Every poor student of medicine in Moscow knows all about king's

houses. It is their duty, is it not?

ALEXIS (aside). Can Michael suspect me? There is something strange in

his manner to-night. Why doesn't she come? The whole fire of revolution

seems fallen into dull ashes when she is not here.

[5]MICH. Have you cured many patients lately, at your hospital, boy?

ALEX. There is one who lies sick to death I would fain cure, but cannot.

MICH. Ay, and who is that?

ALEX. Russia, our mother.

MICH. The curing of Russia is surgeon's business, and must be done by

the knife. I like not your method of medicine.[5]

PRES. Professor, we have read the proofs of your last article; it is

very good indeed.

MICH. What is it about, Professor?

PROFESSOR. The subject, my good brother, is assassination considered as

a method of political reform.

MICH. I think little of pen and ink in revolutions. One dagger will do

more than a hundred epigrams. Still, let us read this scholar's last

production. Give it to me. I will read it myself.

PROF. Brother, you never mind your stops; let Alexis read it.

MICH. Ay! he is as tripping of speech as if he were some young

aristocrat; but for my own part I care not for the stops so that the

sense be plain.

ALEX. (reading). "The past has belonged to the tyrant, and he has

defiled it; ours is the future, and we shall make it holy." Ay! let us

make the future holy; let there be one revolution at least which is not

bred in crime, nurtured in murder!

MICH. They have spoken to us by the sword, and by the sword we shall

answer! You are too delicate for us, Alexis. There should be none here

but men whose hands are rough with labour or red with blood.

PRES. Peace, Michael, peace! He is the bravest heart among us.

MICH. (aside). He will need to be brave to-night.

(The sound of sleigh bells is heard outside.)

VOICE (outside). Per crucem ad lucem.

Answer of man on guard. Per sanguinem ad libertatem.

MICH. Who is that?

VERA. God save the people!

PRES. Welcome, Vera, welcome! [6]We have been sick at heart till we saw

you; but now methinks the star of freedom has come to wake us from the

night.[6]

VERA. [7]It is night, indeed, brother! Night without moon or star![7]

Russia is smitten to the heart! The man Ivan whom men call the Czar

strikes now at our mother with a dagger deadlier than ever forged by

tyranny against a people's life!

MICH. What has the tyrant[8] done now?

VERA. To-morrow martial law is to be proclaimed in Russia.

OMNES. Martial law! We are lost! We are lost!

ALEX. Martial law! Impossible!

MICH. Fool, nothing is impossible in Russia but reform.

VERA. Ay, martial law. The last right to which the people clung has been

taken from them. Without trial, without appeal, without accuser even,

our brothers will be taken from their houses, shot in the streets like

dogs, sent away to die in the snow, to starve in the dungeon, to rot in

the mine. Do you know what martial law means? It means the strangling of

a whole nation. [9]The streets will be filled with soldiers night and

day; there will be sentinels at every door.[9] No man dare walk abroad

now but the spy or the traitor. Cooped up in the dens we hide in,

meeting by stealth, speaking with bated breath; what good can we do now

for Russia?

PRES. We can suffer at least.

VERA. We have done that too much already. The hour is now come to

annihilate and to revenge.

PRES. Up to this the people have borne everything.

VERA. Because they have understood nothing. But now we, the Nihilists,

have given them the tree of knowledge to eat of and the day of silent

suffering is over for Russia.

MICH. Martial law, Vera! This is fearful tidings you bring.

PRES. It is the death warrant of liberty in Russia.

VERA. Or the tocsin of[10] revolution.

MICH. Are you sure it is true?

VERA. Here is the proclamation. I stole it myself at the ball to-night

from a young fool, one of Prince Paul's secretaries, who had been given

it to copy. It was that which made me so late.

(VERA hands proclamation to MICHAEL, who reads it.)

MICH. "To ensure the public safety--martial law. By order of the Czar,

father of his people." The father of his people!

VERA. Ay! a father whose name shall not be hallowed, whose kingdom shall

change to a republic, whose trespasses shall not be forgiven him,

because he has robbed us of our daily bread; with whom is neither might,

nor right, nor glory, now or for ever.

PRES. It must be about this that the council meet to-morrow. It has not

yet been signed.

ALEX. It shall not be while I have a tongue to plead with.

MICH. Or while I have hands to smite with.

VERA. Martial law! O God, how easy it is for a king to kill his people

by thousands, but we cannot rid ourselves of one crowned man in Europe!

What is there of awful majesty in these men which makes the hand

unsteady, the dagger treacherous, the pistol-shot harmless? Are they not

men of like passions with ourselves, vulnerable to the same diseases, of

flesh and blood not different from our own? What made Olgiati tremble at

the supreme crisis of that Roman life, [11]and Guido's nerve fail him

when he should have been of iron and of steel? A plague, I say, on these

fools of Naples, Berlin, and Spain![11] Methinks that if I stood face to

face with one of the crowned men my eye would see more clearly, my aim

be more sure, my whole body gain a strength and power that was not my

own! Oh, to think what stands between us and freedom in Europe! a few

old men, wrinkled, feeble, tottering dotards whom a boy could strangle

for a ducat, or a woman stab in a night-time. And these are the things

that keep us from democracy, that keep us from liberty. But now

methinks the brood of men is dead and the dull earth grown sick of

child-bearing, else would no crowned dog pollute God's air by living.

OMNES. Try us! Try us! Try us!

MICH. We shall try thee, too, some day, Vera.

VERA. I pray God thou mayest! Have I not strangled whatever nature is in

me, and shall I not keep my oath?

MICH. (to PRESIDENT). Martial law, President! Come, there is no time

to be lost. We have twelve hours yet before us till the council meet.

[12]Twelve hours! One can overthrow a dynasty in less time than

that.[12]

PRES. [13]Ay! or lose one's own head.[13]

(MICHAEL and the PRESIDENT retire to one corner of the stage and sit

whispering. VERA takes up the proclamation, and reads it to herself;

ALEXIS watches and suddenly rushes up to her.)

ALEX. Vera!

VERA. Alexis, you here! Foolish boy, have I not prayed you to stay away?

All of us here are doomed to die before our time, fated to expiate by

suffering whatever good we do; but you, with your [14]bright boyish

face,[14] you are too young to die yet.

ALEX. One is never too young to die for one's country!

VERA. Why do you come here night after night?

ALEX. Because I love the people.

VERA. But your fellow-students must miss you. Are there no traitors

among them? You know what spies there are in the University here. O

Alexis, you must go! You see how desperate suffering has made us. There

is no room here for a nature like yours. You must not come again.

ALEX. Why do you think so poorly of me? Why should I live while my

brothers suffer?

VERA. You spake to me of your mother once. You said you loved her. Oh,

think of her!

ALEX. I have no mother now but Russia, my life is hers to take or give

away; but to-night I am here to see you. They tell me you are leaving

for Novgorod to-morrow.

VERA. I must. They are getting faint-hearted there, and I would fan the

flame of this revolution into such a blaze that the eyes of all kings in

Europe shall be blinded. If martial law is passed they will need me all

the more there. There is no limit, it seems, to the tyranny of one man;

but there shall be a limit to the suffering of a whole people.

ALEX. God knows it, I am with you. But you must not go. [15]The police

are watching every train for you.[15] When you are seized they have

orders to place you without trial in the lowest dungeon of the

palace.[16] I know it--no matter how. [17]Oh, think how without you the

sun goes from our life, how the people will lose their leader and

liberty her priestess.[17] Vera, you must not go!

VERA. If you wish it, I will stay. I would live a little longer for

freedom, a little longer for Russia.

ALEX. When you die then Russia is smitten indeed; when you die then I

shall lose all hope--all.... Vera, this is fearful news you

bring--martial law--it is too terrible. I knew it not, by my soul, I

knew it not!

VERA. How could you have known it? It is too well laid a plot for that.

This great White Czar, whose hands are red with the blood of the people

he has murdered, whose soul is black with his iniquity, is the cleverest

conspirator of us all. Oh, how could Russia bear two hearts like yours

and his!

ALEX. Vera, the Emperor was not always like this. There was a time when

he loved the people. It is that devil, whom God curse, Prince Paul

Maraloffski who has brought him to this. To-morrow, I swear it, I shall

plead for the people to the Emperor.

VERA. Plead to the Czar! Foolish boy, it is only those who are

sentenced to death that ever see our Czar. Besides, what should he care

for a voice that pleads for mercy? The cry of a strong nation in its

agony has not moved that heart of stone.

ALEX. (aside). Yet shall I plead to him. They can but kill me.

PROF. Here are the proclamations, Vera. Do you think they will do?

VERA. I shall read them. [18]How fair he looks?[18] Methinks he never

seemed so noble as to-night. Liberty is blessed in having such a lover.

ALEX. Well, President, what are you deep in?

MICH. We are thinking of the best way of killing bears. (Whispers to

PRESIDENT and leads him aside.)

PROF. (to VERA). And the letters [19]from our brothers at Paris and

Berlin. What answer shall we send to them?[19]

VERA (takes them mechanically). Had I not strangled nature, sworn

neither to love nor be loved, methinks[20] I might have loved him. Oh, I

am a fool, a traitor myself, a traitor myself! But why did he come

amongst us with his bright[21] young face, his heart aflame for liberty,

his pure white soul? Why does he make me feel at times as if I would

have him as my king, Republican though I be? Oh, fool, fool, fool! False

to your oath! weak as water! Have done! Remember what you are--a

Nihilist, a Nihilist!

PRES. (to MICHAEL). But you will be seized, Michael.

MICH. I think not. I will wear the uniform of the Imperial Guard, and

the Colonel on duty is one of us. It is on the first floor, you

remember; so I can take a long shot.

PRES. Shall I tell the brethren?

[22]MICH. Not a word, not a word! There is a traitor amongst us.

VERA. Come, are these the proclamations? Yes, they will do; yes, they

will do. Send five hundred to Kiev and Odessa and Novgorod, five

hundred to Warsaw, and have twice the number distributed among the

Southern Provinces, though these dull Russian peasants care little for

our proclamations, and less for our martyrdoms. When the blow is struck,

it must be from the town, not from the country.

MICH. Ay, and by the sword not by the goose-quill.

VERA. Where are the letters from Poland?

PROF. Here.

VERA. Unhappy Poland! The eagles of Russia have fed on her heart. We

must not forget our brothers there.[22]

PRES. Is this true, Michael?

MICH. Ay, I stake my life on it.

PRES. [23]Let the doors be locked, then.[23] Alexis Ivanacievitch

entered on our roll of the brothers as a Student of the School of

Medicine at Moscow. Why did you not tell us of this bloody scheme[24] of

martial law?

ALEX. I, President?

MICH. Ay, you! You knew it, none better. Such weapons as these are not

forged in a day. Why did you not tell us of it? A week ago there had

been time [25]to lay the mine, to raise the barricade, to strike one

blow at least for liberty.[25] But now the hour is past. It is too late,

[26]it is too late![26] Why did you keep it a secret from us, I say?

ALEX. Now by the hand of freedom, Michael, my brother, you wrong me. I

knew nothing of this hideous law. By my soul, my brothers, I knew not of

it! How should I know?

MICH. Because you are a traitor! Where did you go when you left us the

night of our last meeting here?

[27]ALEX. To mine own house, Michael.[27]

MICH. Liar! I was on your track. You left here an hour after midnight.

Wrapped in a large cloak, you crossed the river in a boat a mile below

the second bridge, and gave the ferryman a gold piece, you, the poor

student of medicine! You doubled back twice, and hid in an archway so

long that I had almost made up my mind to stab you at once, only that I

am fond of hunting. So! you thought that you had baffled all pursuit,

did you? Fool! I am a bloodhound that never loses the scent. I followed

you from street to street. At last I saw you pass swiftly across the

Place St. Isaac, whisper to the guards the secret password, enter the

palace by a private door with your own key.

CONSPIRATORS. The palace!

VERA. Alexis!

MICH. I waited. All through the dreary watches of our long Russian night

I waited, that I might kill you with your Judas hire still hot in your

hand. But you never came out; you never left that palace at all. I saw

the blood-red sun rise through the yellow fog over the murky town; I saw

a new day of oppression dawn on Russia; but you never came out. So you

pass nights in the palace, do you? You know the password for the guards!

you have a key to a secret door. Oh, you are a spy--you are a spy! I

never trusted you, [28]with your soft white hands, your curled hair,

your pretty graces.[28] You have no mark of suffering about you; you

cannot be of the people. You are a spy--[29]a spy--traitor.[29]

OMNES. Kill him! Kill him! (draw their knives.)

VERA (rushing in front of ALEXIS). Stand back, I say, Michael! Stand

back all! [30]Do not dare[30] lay a hand upon him! He is the noblest

heart amongst us.

OMNES. Kill him! Kill him! He is a spy!

VERA. Dare to lay a finger on him, and I leave you all to yourselves.

PRES. Vera, did you not hear what Michael said of him? He stayed all

night in the Czar's palace. He has a password and a private key. What

else should he be but a spy?

VERA. Bah! I do not believe Michael. It is a lie! It is[31] a lie!

Alexis, say it is a lie!

ALEX. It is true. Michael has told what he saw. I did pass that night in

the Czar's palace. Michael has spoken the truth.

VERA. Stand back, I say; stand back! Alexis, I do not care. I trust you;

you would not betray us; you would not sell the people for money. You

are honest, true! Oh, say you are no spy!

ALEX. Spy? You know I am not. I am with you, my brothers, to the death.

MICH. Ay, to your own death.

ALEX. Vera, you[32] know I am true.

VERA. I know it well.

PRES. Why are you here, traitor?

ALEX. Because I love the people.

MICH. Then you can be a martyr for them?

VERA. You must kill me first, Michael, before you lay a finger on him.

PRES. Michael, we dare not lose Vera. It is her whim to let this boy

live. We can keep him here to-night. Up to this he has not betrayed us.

(Tramp of soldiers outside, knocking at door.)[33]

VOICE. Open in the name of the Emperor!

MICH. He has betrayed us. This is your doing, spy!

PRES. Come, Michael, come. We have no time to cut one another's throats

while we have our own heads to save.

VOICE. Open in the name of the Emperor!

PRES. Brothers, be masked all of you. [34]Michael, open the door. It is

our only chance.[34]

(Enter GENERAL KOTEMKIN and soldiers.)

GEN. All honest citizens should be in their own houses at an hour before

midnight, and not more than five people have a right to meet privately.

Have you not noticed the proclamation, fellows?

MICH. Ay, you have spoiled every honest[35] wall in Moscow with it.

VERA. Peace, Michael, peace. Nay, Sir, we knew it not. We are a company

of strolling players travelling from Samara to Moscow to amuse His

Imperial Majesty the Czar.

GEN. But I heard loud voices before I entered. What was that?

VERA. We were rehearsing a new tragedy.

GEN. Your answers are too honest to be true. Come, let me see who you

are. Take off those players' masks. By St. Nicholas, my beauty, if your

face matches your figure, you must be a choice morsel! Come, I say,

pretty one; I would sooner see your face than those of all the others.

PRES. O God! if he sees it is Vera, we are all lost!

GEN. No coquetting, my girl. Come, unmask, I say, or I shall tell my

guards to do it for you.

ALEX. Stand back, I say, General Kotemkin!

GEN. Who are you, fellow, that talk with such a tripping tongue to your

betters? (ALEXIS takes his mask off.) His Imperial Highness the

Czarevitch!

OMNES. The Czarevitch! [36]It is all over![36]

[37]PRES. He will give us up to the soldiers.[37]

MICH. (to VERA). Why did you not let me kill him? Come, we must fight

to the death for it.

VERA. Peace! he will not betray us.

ALEX. A whim of mine, General! You know how my father keeps me from the

world and imprisons me in the palace. I should really be bored to death

if I could not get out at night in disguise sometimes, and have some

romantic adventure in town. I fell in with these honest folks a few

hours ago.

GEN. But, your Highness--

ALEX. Oh, they are excellent actors, I assure you. If you had come in

ten minutes ago, you would have witnessed a most interesting scene.

GEN. Actors, are they, Prince?

ALEX. Ay, and very ambitious actors, too. They only care to play before

kings.

GEN. I' faith, your Highness, I was in hopes I had made a good haul of

Nihilists.[38]

ALEX. Nihilists in Moscow, General! with you as head of the police?

Impossible!

GEN. So I always tell your Imperial father. But I heard at the council

to-day that that woman Vera Sabouroff, the head of them, had been seen

in this very city. The Emperor's face turned as white as the snow

outside. I think I never saw such terror in any man before.

ALEX. She is a dangerous woman, then, this Vera Sabouroff?

GEN. The most dangerous in all Europe.

ALEX. Did you ever see her, General?

GEN. Why, five years ago, when I was a plain Colonel, I remember her,

your Highness, a common waiting girl in an inn. If I had known then what

she was going to turn out, I would have flogged her to death on the

roadside. She is not a woman at all; she is a sort of devil! For the

last eighteen months I have been hunting her, and caught sight of her

once last September outside Odessa.

ALEX. How did you let her go, General?

GEN. I was by myself, and she shot one of my horses just as I was

gaining on her. If I see her again I shan't miss my chance. The Emperor

has put twenty thousand roubles on her head.

ALEX. I hope you will get it, General; but meanwhile you are frightening

these honest people out of their wits, and disturbing the tragedy. Good

night, General.

GEN. Yes; but I should like to see their faces, your Highness.

ALEX. No, General; you must not ask that; you know how these gipsies

hate to be stared at.

GEN. Yes. But, your Highness--

ALEX. (haughtily). General, they are my friends, that is enough. And,

General, not a word of this little adventure here, you understand. I

shall rely on you.

GEN. I shall not forget, Prince. But shall we not see you back to the

palace? The State ball is almost over and you are expected.

ALEX. I shall be there; but I shall return alone. Remember, not a word

about my strolling players.

GEN. Or your pretty gipsy, eh, Prince? your pretty gipsy! I' faith, I

should like to see her before I go; she has such fine eyes through her

mask. Well, good night, your Highness; good night.

ALEX. Good night, General.

(Exit GENERAL and the soldiers.)

VERA (throwing off her mask). Saved! and by you!

ALEX. (clasping her hand). Brothers, you trust me now?

TABLEAU.

END OF ACT I.

ACT II.

SCENE.--Council Chamber in the Emperor's Palace, hung with yellow

tapestry. Table, with chair of State, set for the Czar; window behind,

opening on to a balcony. As the scene progresses the light outside gets

darker.

Present.--PRINCE PAUL MARALOFFSKI, PRINCE PETROVITCH, COUNT ROUVALOFF,

BARON RAFF, COUNT PETOUCHOF.

PRINCE PETRO. So our young scatter-brained Czarevitch has been forgiven

at last, and is to take his seat here again.

PRINCE PAUL. Yes; if that is not meant as an extra punishment. For my

own part, at least, I find these Cabinet Councils extremely exhausting.

PRINCE PETRO. Naturally; you are always speaking.

PRINCE PAUL. No; I think it must be that I have to listen sometimes.

COUNT R. Still, anything is better than being kept in a sort of prison,

like he was--never allowed to go out into the world.

PRINCE PAUL. My dear Count, for romantic young people like he is, the

world always looks best at a distance; and a prison where one's allowed

to order one's own dinner is not at all a bad place. (Enter the

CZAREVITCH. The courtiers rise.) Ah! good afternoon, Prince. Your

Highness is looking a little pale to-day.

CZARE. (slowly, after a pause). I want change of air.

PRINCE PAUL (smiling). A most revolutionary sentiment! Your Imperial

father would highly disapprove of any reforms with the thermometer in

Russia.

CZARE. (bitterly). My Imperial father had kept me for six months in

this dungeon of a palace. This morning he has me suddenly woke up to see

some wretched Nihilists hung; it sickened me, the bloody butchery,

though it was a noble thing to see how well these men can die.

PRINCE PAUL. When you are as old as I am, Prince, you will understand

that there are few things easier than to live badly and to die well.

CZARE. Easy to die well! A lesson experience cannot have taught you,

whatever you may know of a bad life.

PRINCE PAUL (shrugging his shoulders). Experience, the name men give

to their mistakes. I never commit any.

CZARE. (bitterly). No; crimes are more in your line.

PRINCE PETRO. (to the CZAREVITCH). The Emperor was a good deal

agitated about your late appearance at the ball last night, Prince.

[1]COUNT R. (laughing). I believe he thought the Nihilists had broken

into the palace and carried you off.

BARON RAFF. If they had you would have missed a charming dance.[1]

PRINCE PAUL. And[2] an excellent supper. Gringoire really excelled

himself in his salad. Ah! you may laugh, Baron; but to make a good salad

is a much more difficult thing than cooking accounts. To make a good

salad is to be a brilliant diplomatist--the problem is so entirely the

same in both cases. To know exactly how much oil one must put with one's

vinegar.

BARON RAFF. A cook and a diplomatist! an excellent parallel. If I had a

son who was a fool I'd make him one or the other.

PRINCE PAUL. I see your father did not hold the same opinion, Baron.

But, believe me, you are wrong to run down cookery. For myself, the only

immortality I desire is to invent a new sauce. I have never had time

enough to think seriously about it, but I feel it is in me, I feel it is

in me.

CZARE. You have certainly missed your metier,[3] Prince Paul; the

cordon bleu would have suited you much better than the Grand Cross of

Honour. But you know you could never have worn your white apron well;

you would have soiled it too soon, your hands are not clean enough.

PRINCE PAUL (bowing). Que voulez vous? I manage your father's

business.

CZARE. (bitterly). You mismanage my father's business, you mean! Evil

genius of his life that you are! before you came there was some love

left in him. It is you who have embittered his nature, poured into his

ear the poison of treacherous counsel, made him hated by the whole

people, made him what he is--a tyrant!

(The courtiers look significantly at each other.)

PRINCE PAUL (calmly). I see your Highness does want change of air. But

I have been an eldest son myself. (Lights a cigarette.) I know what it

is when a father won't die to please one.

(The CZAREVITCH goes to the top of the stage, and leans against the

window, looking out.)

PRINCE PETRO. (to BARON RAFF). Foolish boy! [4]He will be sent into

exile, or worse, if he is not careful.[4]

BARON RAFF. Yes.[5] What a mistake it is to be sincere!

PRINCE PETRO. The only folly you have never committed, Baron.

BARON RAFF. One has only one head, you know, Prince.

PRINCE PAUL. My dear Baron, your head is the last thing any one would

wish to take from you. (Pulls out snuffbox and offers it to PRINCE

PETROVITCH.)

PRINCE PETRO. Thanks, Prince! Thanks!

PRINCE PAUL. Very delicate, isn't it? I get it direct from Paris. But

under this vulgar Republic everything has degenerated over there.

"Cotelettes à l'impériale" vanished, of course, with the Bourbon, and

omelettes went out with the Orleanists. La belle France is entirely

ruined, Prince, through bad morals and worse cookery. (Enter the

MARQUIS DE POIVRARD.) Ah! Marquis. I trust Madame la Marquise is well.

MARQUIS DE P. You ought to know better than I do, Prince Paul; you see

more of her.

PRINCE PAUL (bowing). Perhaps I see more in her, Marquis. Your wife

is really a charming woman, so full of esprit, and so satirical too;

she talks continually of you when we are together.

PRINCE PETRO. (looking at the clock). His Majesty is a little late

to-day, is he not?