The Dramas of Victor Hugo: Mary Tudor, Marion de Lorme, EsmeraldaHugo, Victor
General
The Dramas of Victor Hugo: Mary Tudor, Marion de Lorme, Esmeralda
Hugo, Victor
French drama -- 19th century -- Translations into English
This creature whom I have loaded with benefits! this Neapolitan
lackey whom I have made a noble knight and a proud earl of England.
Ah, I ought to have expected this! But I am always like that; I am
obstinate, and afterward I see that I am wrong. It is my fault.
Italian stands for liar: Neapolitan for coward. Every time that my
father made use of an Italian, he repented of it. This Fabiani! You
see Lady Jane, unfortunate child, to what a man you have surrendered
yourself! But I will avenge you. Oh, I ought to have known it from
the first. You will find nothing in an Italian's pocket but a
stiletto, nothing in his soul but treachery.
FABIANI.
Madame, I swear to you--
THE QUEEN.
Good! Now he will perjure himself; he will descend to the depths of
infamy; he will make us blush to our finger-tips before these men--we
women who have loved him. He will not even lift up his head!
FABIANI.
Yes, madame, I will lift it up! I am lost; I see it clearly. My death
is decided. You will make use of every means, dagger, poison--
THE QUEEN (_taking hold of both his hands and dragging him violently
to the front of the stage_).
Poison! Dagger! What are you saying, Italian? A treacherous
vengeance, a disgraceful vengeance--a vengeance from the back, a
vengeance such as you take in your country? No, Signor Fabiani,
neither dagger nor poison. Do I have to conceal myself? Do I have to
hide in the corners of the street at night and make myself small when
I want revenge? No, by my faith, I want the daylight! Do you hear, my
lord?--the full noonday, the bright sun, the public square, the ax
and the stake, the crowds in the street, the crowds at the windows,
the crowds on the roofs! A hundred thousand witnesses! I want people
to be afraid, do you hear, my lord? I want them to think it splendid,
frightful, magnificent. I want them to say, "It is a woman who has
been wronged, but it is a Queen who takes revenge!" This much envied
favorite, this handsome, insolent young man, whom I have dressed in
velvets and satins, I want to see him bent double, terrified and
trembling, on his knees before a black cloth, with naked feet, with
manacled wrists, hissed by the people, fingered by the executioner.
On this white neck, where I have put a golden collar, I want to put a
rope. I have seen how Fabiani looks upon a throne, I want to see how
he looks upon a scaffold.
FABIANI.
Madame--
THE QUEEN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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