Monologue

Guido Monologue from The Duchess of Padua

From The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde

male · philosophical · 2:16 min

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Now then I know you have not loved at all. Love is the sacrament of life; it sets Virtue where virtue was not; cleanses men Of all the vile pollutions of this world; It is the fire which purges gold from dross, It is the fan which winnows wheat from chaff, It is the spring which in some wintry soil Makes innocence to blossom like a rose. The days are over when God walked with men, But Love, which is his image, holds his place. When a man loves a woman, then he knows God’s secret, and the secret of the world. There is no house so lowly or so mean, Which, if their hearts be pure who live in it, Love will not enter; but if bloody murder Knock at the Palace gate and is let in, Love like a wounded thing creeps out and dies. This is the punishment God sets on sin. The wicked cannot love. Ah! What is that? Do you not hear? ’Twas nothing. So I think That it is woman’s mission by their love To save the souls of men: and loving her, My Lady, my white Beatrice, I begin To see a nobler and a holier vengeance In letting this man live, than doth reside In bloody deeds o’ night, stabs in the dark, And young hands clutching at a palsied throat. It was, I think, for love’s sake that Lord Christ, Who was indeed himself incarnate Love, Bade every man forgive his enemy. MORANZONE That was in Palestine, not Padua; And said for saints: I have to do with men.

About this piece

Guido reflects on the nature of love and its power to redeem and purify, contrasting it with the violence and sin that corrupts the world around him.

30s · hope · love · redemption · violence · forgiveness

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