章节正文
it to him.] I wish it was mine, but Gertrude won't let me wear
anything but pearls, and I am thoroughly sick of pearls. They make
one look so plain, so good and so intellectual. I wonder whom the
brooch belongs to.
LORD GORING. I wonder who dropped it.
MABEL CHILTERN. It is a beautiful brooch.
LORD GORING. It is a handsome bracelet.
MABEL CHILTERN. It isn't a bracelet. It's a brooch.
LORD GORING. It can be used as a bracelet. [Takes it from her, and,
pulling out a green letter-case, puts the ornament carefully in it,
and replaces the whole thing in his breast-pocket with the most
perfect sang froid.]
MABEL CHILTERN. What are you doing?
LORD GORING. Miss Mabel, I am going to make a rather strange request
to you.
MABEL CHILTERN. [Eagerly.] Oh, pray do! I have been waiting for it
all the evening.
LORD GORING. [Is a little taken aback, but recovers himself.] Don't
mention to anybody that I have taken charge of this brooch. Should
any one write and claim it, let me know at once.
MABEL CHILTERN. That is a strange request.
LORD GORING. Well, you see I gave this brooch to somebody once,
years ago.
MABEL CHILTERN. You did?
LORD GORING. Yes.
[LADY CHILTERN enters alone. The other guests have gone.]
MABEL CHILTERN. Then I shall certainly bid you good-night. Good-
night, Gertrude! [Exit.]
LADY CHILTERN. Good-night, dear! [To LORD GORING.] You saw whom
Lady Markby brought here to-night?
LORD GORING. Yes. It was an unpleasant surprise. What did she come
here for?
LADY CHILTERN. Apparently to try and lure Robert to uphold some
fraudulent scheme in which she is interested. The Argentine Canal,
in fact.
LORD GORING. She has mistaken her man, hasn't she?
LADY CHILTERN. She is incapable of understanding an upright nature
like my husband's!
LORD GORING. Yes. I should fancy she came to grief if she tried to
get Robert into her toils. It is extraordinary what astounding
mistakes clever women make.
LADY CHILTERN. I don't call women of that kind clever. I call them
stupid!
LORD GORING. Same thing often. Good-night, Lady Chiltern!
LADY CHILTERN. Good-night!
[Enter SIR ROBERT CHILTERN.]
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. My dear Arthur, you are not going? Do stop a
little!
LORD GORING. Afraid I can't, thanks. I have promised to look in at
the Hartlocks'. I believe they have got a mauve Hungarian band that
plays mauve Hungarian music. See you soon. Good-bye!
[Exit]
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. How beautiful you look to-night, Gertrude!
LADY CHILTERN. Robert, it is not true, is it? You are not going to
lend your support to this Argentine speculation? You couldn't!
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Starting.] Who told you I intended to do so?
LADY CHILTERN. That woman who has just gone out, Mrs. Cheveley, as
she calls herself now. She seemed to taunt me with it. Robert, I
know this woman. You don't. We were at school together. She was
untruthful, dishonest, an evil influence on every one whose trust or
friendship she could win. I hated, I despised her. She stole
things, she was a thief. She was sent away for being a thief. Why
do you let her influence you?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Gertrude, what you tell me may be true, but it
happened many years ago. It is best forgotten! Mrs. Cheveley may
have changed since then. No one should be entirely judged by their
past.
LADY CHILTERN. [Sadly.] One's past is what one is. It is the only
way by which people should be judged.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. That is a hard saying, Gertrude!
LADY CHILTERN. It is a true saying, Robert. And what did she mean
by boasting that she had got you to lend your support, your name, to
a thing I have heard you describe as the most dishonest and
fraudulent scheme there has ever been in political life?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Biting his lip.] I was mistaken in the view I
took. We all may make mistakes.
LADY CHILTERN. But you told me yesterday that you had received the
report from the Commission, and that it entirely condemned the whole
thing.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Walking up and down.] I have reasons now to
believe that the Commission was prejudiced, or, at any rate,
misinformed. Besides, Gertrude, public and private life are
different things. They have different laws, and move on different
lines.
LADY CHILTERN. They should both represent man at his highest. I see
no difference between them.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Stopping.] In the present case, on a matter
of practical politics, I have changed my mind. That is all.
LADY CHILTERN. All!
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Sternly.] Yes!
LADY CHILTERN. Robert! Oh! it is horrible that I should have to ask
you such a question - Robert, are you telling me the whole truth?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Why do you ask me such a question?
LADY CHILTERN. [After a pause.] Why do you not answer it?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Sitting down.] Gertrude, truth is a very
complex thing, and politics is a very complex business. There are
wheels within wheels. One may be under certain obligations to people
that one must pay. Sooner or later in political life one has to
compromise. Every one does.
LADY CHILTERN. Compromise? Robert, why do you talk so differently
to-night from the way I have always heard you talk? Why are you
changed?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. I am not changed. But circumstances alter
things.
LADY CHILTERN. Circumstances should never alter principles!
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. But if I told you -
LADY CHILTERN. What?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. That it was necessary, vitally necessary?
LADY CHILTERN. It can never be necessary to do what is not
honourable. Or if it be necessary, then what is it that I have
loved! But it is not, Robert; tell me it is not. Why should it be?
What gain would you get ? Money? We have no need of that! And
money that comes from a tainted source is a degradation. Power? But
power is nothing in itself. It is power to do good that is fine -
that, and that only. What is it, then? Robert, tell me why you are
going to do this dishonourable thing!
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Gertrude, you have no right to use that word.
I told you it was a question of rationalcompromise. It is no more
than that.
LADY CHILTERN. Robert, that is all very well for other men, for men
who treat life simply as a sordidspeculation; but not for you,
Robert, not for you. You are different. All your life you have
stood apart from others. You have never let the world soil you. To
the world, as to myself, you have been an ideal always. Oh! be that
ideal still. That great inheritance throw not away - that tower of
ivory do not destroy. Robert, men can love what is beneath them -
things worthy" target="_blank" title="a.不值得的；不足道的">unworthy, stained, dishonoured. We women worship when we
love; and when we lose our worship, we lose everything. Oh! don't
kill my love for you, don't kill that!
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Gertrude!
LADY CHILTERN. I know that there are men with horrible secrets in
their lives - men who have done some shameful thing, and who in some
critical moment have to pay for it, by doing some other act of shame
- oh! don't tell me you are such as they are! Robert, is there in
your life any secret dishonour or disgrace? Tell me, tell me at
once, that -
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. That what?
LADY CHILTERN. [Speaking very slowly.] That our lives may drift
apart.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Drift apart?
LADY CHILTERN. That they may be entirely separate. It would be
better for us both.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Gertrude, there is nothing in my past life that
you might not know.
LADY CHILTERN. I was sure of it, Robert, I was sure of it. But why
did you say those dreadful things, things so unlike your real self?
Don't let us ever talk about the subject again. You will write,
won't you, to Mrs. Cheveley, and tell her that you cannot support
this scandalous scheme of hers? If you have given her any promise
you must take it back, that is all!
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Must I write and tell her that?
LADY CHILTERN. Surely, Robert! What else is there to do?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. I might see her personally. It would be
better.
LADY CHILTERN. You must never see her again, Robert. She is not a
woman you should ever speak to. She is not worthy to talk to a man
like you. No; you must write to her at once, now, this moment, and
let your letter show her that your decision is quite irrevocable!
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Write this moment!
LADY CHILTERN. Yes.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. But it is so late. It is close on twelve.
LADY CHILTERN. That makes no matter. She must know at once that she
has been mistaken in you - and that you are not a man to do anything
base or underhand or dishonourable. Write here, Robert. Write that
you decline to support this scheme of hers, as you hold it to be a
dishonestscheme. Yes - write the word dishonest. She knows what
that word means. [SIR ROBERT CHILTERN sits down and writes a letter.
His wife takes it up and reads it.] Yes; that will do. [Rings
bell.] And now the envelope. [He writes the envelope slowly. Enter
MASON.] Have this letter sent at once to Claridge's Hotel. There is
no answer. [Exit MASON. LADY CHILTERN kneels down beside her
husband, and puts her arms around him.] Robert, love gives one an
instinct to things. I feel to-night that I have saved you from
something that might have been a danger to you, from something that
might have made men honour you less than they do. I don't think you
realise sufficiently, Robert, that you have brought into the
political life of our time a nobler atmosphere, a finer attitude
towards life, a freer air of purer aims and higher ideals - I know
it, and for that I love you, Robert.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Oh, love me always, Gertrude, love me always!
LADY CHILTERN. I will love you always, because you will always be
worthy of love. We needs must love the highest when we see it!
[Kisses him and rises and goes out.]
[SIR ROBERT CHILTERN walks up and down for a moment; then sits down
and buries his face in his hands. The Servant enters and begins
pulling out the lights. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN looks up.]
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Put out the lights, Mason, put out the lights!
[The Servant puts out the lights. The room becomes almost dark. The
only light there is comes from the great chandelier that hangs over
the staircase and illumines the tapestry of the Triumph of Love.]
ACT DROP
SECOND ACT
SCENE
Morning-room at Sir Robert Chiltern's house.
[LORD GORING, dressed in the height of fashion, is lounging in an
armchair. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN is standing in front of the fireplace.
He is evidently in a state of great mentalexcitement and distress.
As the scene progresses he paces nervously up and down the room.]
LORD GORING. My dear Robert, it's a very awkward business, very
awkward indeed. You should have told your wife the whole thing.
Secrets from other people's wives are a necessary luxury in modern
anything but pearls, and I am thoroughly sick of pearls. They make
one look so plain, so good and so intellectual. I wonder whom the
brooch belongs to.
LORD GORING. I wonder who dropped it.
MABEL CHILTERN. It is a beautiful brooch.
LORD GORING. It is a handsome bracelet.
MABEL CHILTERN. It isn't a bracelet. It's a brooch.
LORD GORING. It can be used as a bracelet. [Takes it from her, and,
pulling out a green letter-case, puts the ornament carefully in it,
and replaces the whole thing in his breast-pocket with the most
perfect sang froid.]
MABEL CHILTERN. What are you doing?
LORD GORING. Miss Mabel, I am going to make a rather strange request
to you.
MABEL CHILTERN. [Eagerly.] Oh, pray do! I have been waiting for it
all the evening.
LORD GORING. [Is a little taken aback, but recovers himself.] Don't
mention to anybody that I have taken charge of this brooch. Should
any one write and claim it, let me know at once.
MABEL CHILTERN. That is a strange request.
LORD GORING. Well, you see I gave this brooch to somebody once,
years ago.
MABEL CHILTERN. You did?
LORD GORING. Yes.
[LADY CHILTERN enters alone. The other guests have gone.]
MABEL CHILTERN. Then I shall certainly bid you good-night. Good-
night, Gertrude! [Exit.]
LADY CHILTERN. Good-night, dear! [To LORD GORING.] You saw whom
Lady Markby brought here to-night?
LORD GORING. Yes. It was an unpleasant surprise. What did she come
here for?
LADY CHILTERN. Apparently to try and lure Robert to uphold some
fraudulent scheme in which she is interested. The Argentine Canal,
in fact.
LORD GORING. She has mistaken her man, hasn't she?
LADY CHILTERN. She is incapable of understanding an upright nature
like my husband's!
LORD GORING. Yes. I should fancy she came to grief if she tried to
get Robert into her toils. It is extraordinary what astounding
mistakes clever women make.
LADY CHILTERN. I don't call women of that kind clever. I call them
stupid!
LORD GORING. Same thing often. Good-night, Lady Chiltern!
LADY CHILTERN. Good-night!
[Enter SIR ROBERT CHILTERN.]
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. My dear Arthur, you are not going? Do stop a
little!
LORD GORING. Afraid I can't, thanks. I have promised to look in at
the Hartlocks'. I believe they have got a mauve Hungarian band that
plays mauve Hungarian music. See you soon. Good-bye!
[Exit]
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. How beautiful you look to-night, Gertrude!
LADY CHILTERN. Robert, it is not true, is it? You are not going to
lend your support to this Argentine speculation? You couldn't!
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Starting.] Who told you I intended to do so?
LADY CHILTERN. That woman who has just gone out, Mrs. Cheveley, as
she calls herself now. She seemed to taunt me with it. Robert, I
know this woman. You don't. We were at school together. She was
untruthful, dishonest, an evil influence on every one whose trust or
friendship she could win. I hated, I despised her. She stole
things, she was a thief. She was sent away for being a thief. Why
do you let her influence you?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Gertrude, what you tell me may be true, but it
happened many years ago. It is best forgotten! Mrs. Cheveley may
have changed since then. No one should be entirely judged by their
past.
LADY CHILTERN. [Sadly.] One's past is what one is. It is the only
way by which people should be judged.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. That is a hard saying, Gertrude!
LADY CHILTERN. It is a true saying, Robert. And what did she mean
by boasting that she had got you to lend your support, your name, to
a thing I have heard you describe as the most dishonest and
fraudulent scheme there has ever been in political life?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Biting his lip.] I was mistaken in the view I
took. We all may make mistakes.
LADY CHILTERN. But you told me yesterday that you had received the
report from the Commission, and that it entirely condemned the whole
thing.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Walking up and down.] I have reasons now to
believe that the Commission was prejudiced, or, at any rate,
misinformed. Besides, Gertrude, public and private life are
different things. They have different laws, and move on different
lines.
LADY CHILTERN. They should both represent man at his highest. I see
no difference between them.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Stopping.] In the present case, on a matter
of practical politics, I have changed my mind. That is all.
LADY CHILTERN. All!
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Sternly.] Yes!
LADY CHILTERN. Robert! Oh! it is horrible that I should have to ask
you such a question - Robert, are you telling me the whole truth?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Why do you ask me such a question?
LADY CHILTERN. [After a pause.] Why do you not answer it?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. [Sitting down.] Gertrude, truth is a very
complex thing, and politics is a very complex business. There are
wheels within wheels. One may be under certain obligations to people
that one must pay. Sooner or later in political life one has to
compromise. Every one does.
LADY CHILTERN. Compromise? Robert, why do you talk so differently
to-night from the way I have always heard you talk? Why are you
changed?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. I am not changed. But circumstances alter
things.
LADY CHILTERN. Circumstances should never alter principles!
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. But if I told you -
LADY CHILTERN. What?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. That it was necessary, vitally necessary?
LADY CHILTERN. It can never be necessary to do what is not
honourable. Or if it be necessary, then what is it that I have
loved! But it is not, Robert; tell me it is not. Why should it be?
What gain would you get ? Money? We have no need of that! And
money that comes from a tainted source is a degradation. Power? But
power is nothing in itself. It is power to do good that is fine -
that, and that only. What is it, then? Robert, tell me why you are
going to do this dishonourable thing!
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Gertrude, you have no right to use that word.
I told you it was a question of rationalcompromise. It is no more
than that.
LADY CHILTERN. Robert, that is all very well for other men, for men
who treat life simply as a sordidspeculation; but not for you,
Robert, not for you. You are different. All your life you have
stood apart from others. You have never let the world soil you. To
the world, as to myself, you have been an ideal always. Oh! be that
ideal still. That great inheritance throw not away - that tower of
ivory do not destroy. Robert, men can love what is beneath them -
things worthy" target="_blank" title="a.不值得的；不足道的">unworthy, stained, dishonoured. We women worship when we
love; and when we lose our worship, we lose everything. Oh! don't
kill my love for you, don't kill that!
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Gertrude!
LADY CHILTERN. I know that there are men with horrible secrets in
their lives - men who have done some shameful thing, and who in some
critical moment have to pay for it, by doing some other act of shame
- oh! don't tell me you are such as they are! Robert, is there in
your life any secret dishonour or disgrace? Tell me, tell me at
once, that -
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. That what?
LADY CHILTERN. [Speaking very slowly.] That our lives may drift
apart.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Drift apart?
LADY CHILTERN. That they may be entirely separate. It would be
better for us both.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Gertrude, there is nothing in my past life that
you might not know.
LADY CHILTERN. I was sure of it, Robert, I was sure of it. But why
did you say those dreadful things, things so unlike your real self?
Don't let us ever talk about the subject again. You will write,
won't you, to Mrs. Cheveley, and tell her that you cannot support
this scandalous scheme of hers? If you have given her any promise
you must take it back, that is all!
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Must I write and tell her that?
LADY CHILTERN. Surely, Robert! What else is there to do?
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. I might see her personally. It would be
better.
LADY CHILTERN. You must never see her again, Robert. She is not a
woman you should ever speak to. She is not worthy to talk to a man
like you. No; you must write to her at once, now, this moment, and
let your letter show her that your decision is quite irrevocable!
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Write this moment!
LADY CHILTERN. Yes.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. But it is so late. It is close on twelve.
LADY CHILTERN. That makes no matter. She must know at once that she
has been mistaken in you - and that you are not a man to do anything
base or underhand or dishonourable. Write here, Robert. Write that
you decline to support this scheme of hers, as you hold it to be a
dishonestscheme. Yes - write the word dishonest. She knows what
that word means. [SIR ROBERT CHILTERN sits down and writes a letter.
His wife takes it up and reads it.] Yes; that will do. [Rings
bell.] And now the envelope. [He writes the envelope slowly. Enter
MASON.] Have this letter sent at once to Claridge's Hotel. There is
no answer. [Exit MASON. LADY CHILTERN kneels down beside her
husband, and puts her arms around him.] Robert, love gives one an
instinct to things. I feel to-night that I have saved you from
something that might have been a danger to you, from something that
might have made men honour you less than they do. I don't think you
realise sufficiently, Robert, that you have brought into the
political life of our time a nobler atmosphere, a finer attitude
towards life, a freer air of purer aims and higher ideals - I know
it, and for that I love you, Robert.
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Oh, love me always, Gertrude, love me always!
LADY CHILTERN. I will love you always, because you will always be
worthy of love. We needs must love the highest when we see it!
[Kisses him and rises and goes out.]
[SIR ROBERT CHILTERN walks up and down for a moment; then sits down
and buries his face in his hands. The Servant enters and begins
pulling out the lights. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN looks up.]
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Put out the lights, Mason, put out the lights!
[The Servant puts out the lights. The room becomes almost dark. The
only light there is comes from the great chandelier that hangs over
the staircase and illumines the tapestry of the Triumph of Love.]
ACT DROP
SECOND ACT
SCENE
Morning-room at Sir Robert Chiltern's house.
[LORD GORING, dressed in the height of fashion, is lounging in an
armchair. SIR ROBERT CHILTERN is standing in front of the fireplace.
He is evidently in a state of great mentalexcitement and distress.
As the scene progresses he paces nervously up and down the room.]
LORD GORING. My dear Robert, it's a very awkward business, very
awkward indeed. You should have told your wife the whole thing.
Secrets from other people's wives are a necessary luxury in modern
- thoroughly [´θʌrəli]
ad.完全地，彻底地 (初中英语单词) - ornament [´ɔ:nəmənt] n.装饰(物) vt.装饰 (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- charge [tʃɑ:dʒ] v.收费；冲锋 n.费用 (初中英语单词)
- scheme [ski:m] n.计划；阴谋，诡计 (初中英语单词)
- extraordinary [ik´strɔ:dinəri] a.非常的；额外的 (初中英语单词)
- yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
- politics [´pɔlitiks] n.政治(学)；政治活动 (初中英语单词)
- horrible [´hɔrəbəl] a.可怕的；恐怖的 (初中英语单词)
- complex [´kɔmpleks] a.复杂的 n.综合企业 (初中英语单词)
- worship [´wə:ʃip] n.&v.崇拜；敬仰 (初中英语单词)
- disgrace [dis´greis] n.耻辱 vt.玷辱；贬黜 (初中英语单词)
- dreadful [´dredful] a.可怕的；讨厌的 (初中英语单词)
- unlike [,ʌn´laik] a.不同的 prep.不象... (初中英语单词)
- worthy [´wə:ði] a.有价值的；值得的 (初中英语单词)
- envelope [´envələup] n.信封，封皮 (初中英语单词)
- sufficiently [sə´fiʃəntli] ad.充分地，足够地 (初中英语单词)
- atmosphere [´ætməsfiə] n.大气；空气；气氛 (初中英语单词)
- triumph [´traiəmf] n.胜利 vi.得胜，战胜 (初中英语单词)
- height [hait] n.高度；顶点；卓越 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- evidently [´evidəntli] ad.明显地 (初中英语单词)
- mental [´mentl] a.精神的；心理的 (初中英语单词)
- excitement [ik´saitmənt] n.兴奋；骚动；煽动 (初中英语单词)
- luxury [´lʌkʃəri] n.奢侈(品)；享受 (初中英语单词)
- intellectual [,inti´lektʃuəl] n.知识分子 (高中英语单词)
- bracelet [´breislit] n.手镯 (高中英语单词)
- unpleasant [ʌn´plezənt] a.不愉快的；不合意的 (高中英语单词)
- apparently [ə´pærəntli] ad.显然，表面上地 (高中英语单词)
- mistaken [mis´teikən] mistake的过去分词 (高中英语单词)
- upright [´ʌprait] a.直立的 ad.直立地 (高中英语单词)
- speculation [,spekju´leiʃən] n.思索，推测；投机 (高中英语单词)
- saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
- commission [kə´miʃən] n.委任(状) vt.委任 (高中英语单词)
- compromise [´kɔmprəmaiz] n.妥协，和解 (高中英语单词)
- inheritance [in´heritəns] n.继承(物)；遗传；遗产 (高中英语单词)
- personally [´pə:sənəli] ad.亲自；就个人来说 (高中英语单词)
- awkward [´ɔ:kwəd] a.笨拙的；为难的 (高中英语单词)
- uphold [,ʌp´həuld] vt.支持，拥护；维持 (英语四级单词)
- argentine [´ɑ:dʒəntain] n.&a.阿根廷人(的) (英语四级单词)
- incapable [in´keipəbəl] a.无能力的；不能的 (英语四级单词)
- rational [´ræʃənəl] a.(有)理性的；合理的 (英语四级单词)
- sordid [´sɔ:did] a.(指环境等)肮脏的 (英语四级单词)
- unworthy [ʌn´wə:ði] a.不值得的；不足道的 (英语四级单词)
- shameful [´ʃeimfəl] a.可耻的；猥亵的 (英语四级单词)
- staircase [´steəkeis] n.楼梯 =stairway (英语四级单词)
- tapestry [´tæpistri] n.挂毯 (英语四级单词)
- nervously [´nə:vəsli] ad.神经质地；胆怯地 (英语四级单词)
- brooch [brəutʃ] n.胸针 (英语六级单词)
- dishonest [dis´ɔnist] a.不诚实的 (英语六级单词)
- degradation [,degrə´deiʃən] n.降低；恶化；堕落 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
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