3-057-412 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Script of 'Vera, or the Nihilists', c1880. Page of marked text from the play by Oscar Wilde. '...(ven)geance comes at last, vengeance with red hands and (bloody purpose). Prince Paul. Bah! the people are bad shots: they always miss one. Czare. There are times when the people are the instruments of God. Czar. Ay! and when kings are God's scourges for the people. (Oh, my own son, in my own house! My own flesh and blood against me!...) Take him away! Bring in my guards. [Enter the Imperial Guard. Czar points to the Czarevitch, who stands alone at the side of the stage.] To (the blackest) prison (in Moscow)! Let me never see his face again. [Czarevitch is being led out.) No, no, leave him! I don't trust the guards. They are all Nihilists! (They would let him escape and he would kill me, kill me! No! I'll bring him to prison myself, you and I [to Prince Paul]. I trust you, you have no mercy. (I shall have no mercy. Oh, my own son against me...! Out of my sight! I can't bear his eyes. Wait, wait for me). [Throws window open and goes out on balcony.]...Voice [outside, in the street]. God save the people! [Czar is shot, and staggers back into the room.] Czare. Murderer! Murderer! You did it! Murderer! [Dies.] Tableau. End of Act II'.