Vera o i nichilisti by Oscar Wilde

Author:Oscar Wilde [Wilde, Oscar]
Language: ita
Format: epub
Publisher: Feltrinelli
Published: 2020-03-06T23:00:00+00:00

ACT TWO

ITA

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 PETROVITCH 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 tiring.

PRINCE PETROVITCH Naturally, you are always speaking.

PRINCE PAUL No; I think it must be that I have to listen sometimes. It’s so exhasting not to tolk.

COUNT ROUVALOFF 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.

ITA

CZAREVITCH (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 even with the thermometer in Russia.

CZAREVITCH (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.

CZAREVITCH Easy to die well! A lesson experience cannot have taught you, much as you know of a bad life.

PRINCE PAUL (shrugging his shoulders) Experience, the name men give to their mistakes. I never commit any.

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

PRINCE PETROVITCH (to the Czarevitch) The Emperor was a good deal agitated about your late appearance at the ball last night, Prince.

COUNT ROUVALOFF (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.

PRINCE PAUL And an excellent supper. Gringoire really excelled himself in his salad. Ah! You may laugh, Baron; but to cook 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 entirely the same in both cases. To know exactly how much oil one must put with one’s vinegar.

ITA

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.

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