Читать книгу Complete Works Of Oscar Wilde (Best Navigation) (A to Z Classics) - Оскар Уайльд, F. H. Cornish, A to Z Classics - Страница 11

The Duchess of Padua was begun in 1882, and finished in March 1883. It was produced in New York on November 14, 1891, at Hammerstein’s Opera House. Twenty prompt copies were printed for private circulation and use in the theatre. One of only three copies known to exist contains the author’s corrections. The corrections have been followed in this second edition as far as possible: though certain deleted passages have been retained in order to preserve the sense, the author not having supplied substitutes. In the first edition (Methuen and Co., 1908) the corrections were marked by brackets. Where the author’s deletions have obviously improved the action of the drama for purposes of presentation or reading, the deleted passages are omitted. Exceptions are made in ·vi· favour of a few lines of finer quality, and these lines are retained though deleted in the prompt copy. The original manuscript was stolen, with other unpublished works, from the author’s house in April 1895. The play has been translated by Dr. Max Meyerfeld (Egon, Fleischel and Co., Berlin, 1904). Unauthorised translations in prose from this German version exist and are offered for sale in America and elsewhere by unscrupulous publishers dealing in other spurious works ascribed to Oscar Wilde. The dramatic rights for America belong to the representatives of Miss Gale and the late Laurence Barrett. The dramatic rights for the United Kingdom, the Colonies and the Continent are vested in the author’s literary executor, and administrator of his estate, Robert Ross.

·vii· to

MISS ADELA SCHUSTER

madam,

A few months before his death Mr. Oscar Wilde expressed to me a regret that he had never dedicated any of his works to one from whom he had received such infinite kindness and to whom he was under obligations no flattering dedication could repay. With not very great sincerity, because I knew he was a dying man, I suggested he might still write a play or book which you would accept. He answered with truth, ‘There is nothing but The Duchess of Padua and it is unworthy of her and unworthy of me.’ With all his egoism and self-complacency you will know, perhaps as well as I do, that he never regarded his works as an adequate expression of his extraordinary genius and his magnificent intellectual endowment; many people hardly believe that in his last years he was the severest critic of his own achievements. In the pages of De Profundis there are many references to yourself, and I think I am carrying out my dear friend’s wishes in asking your acceptance of a play which was the prelude to a singularly brilliant and, if the last five years are omitted, a very happy life.

robert ross

Christmas 1906.

the persons of the play.

simone gesso, Duke of Padua

beatrice, his Wife

andreas pollajuolo, Cardinal of Padua

maffio petrucci,

jeppo vitellozzo,

taddeo bardi, Gentlemen of the Duke’s Household

guido ferranti, a Young Man

ascanio cristofano, his Friend

count moranzone, an Old Man

bernardo cavalcanti, Lord Justice of Padua

hugo, the Headsman

lucy, a Tire woman

Servants, Citizens, Soldiers, Monks, Falconers with their hawks and dogs, etc.

Place: Padua.

Time: The latter half of Sixteenth Century.

the scenes of the play.

Act I: The Market Place of Padua (25 minutes).

Act II: Room in the Duke’s Palace (36 minutes).

Act III: Corridor in the Duke’s Palace (29 minutes).

Act IV: The Hall of Justice (31 minutes).

Act V: The Dungeon (25 minutes).

Style of Architecture: Italian, Gothic and Romanesque