Monologue

Duchess Monologue from The Duchess of Padua

From The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde

female · anguished · 1:25 min

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Alas! GUIDO You are my lady, and you are my love! O hair of gold, O crimson lips, O face Made for the luring and the love of man! Incarnate image of pure loveliness! Worshipping thee I do forget the past, Worshipping thee my soul comes close to thine, Worshipping thee I seem to be a god, And though they give my body to the block, Yet is my love eternal! Sweet, lift up The trailing curtains that overhang your eyes That I may look into those eyes, and tell you I love you, never more than now when Death Thrusts his cold lips between us: Beatrice, I love you: have you no word left to say? Oh, I can bear the executioner, But not this silence: will you not say you love me? Speak but that word and Death shall lose his sting, But speak it not, and fifty thousand deaths Are, in comparison, mercy. Oh, you are cruel, And do not love me.

About this piece

The Duchess expresses her deep love for Guido while facing the imminent threat of death, pleading for a response to her affections amidst the silence that torments her.

30s · longing · love · death · silence

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