"Smith, Clark Ashton - The Dead Will Cuckold You" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Clark Ashton)

knees, still clutching the empty goblet. )
You have poisoned me, who never wronged you. Why
Have you done it?

Smaragad: That you may never wrong me. You have drunk
A vintage that will quench all mortal thirst.
You will not look on queens nor they on you
When the thick maggots gather in your eyes,
And issue in lieu of love-songs from your lips,
And geld you by slow inches.

Somelis: (descending from her seat and coming forward):
Smaragad,
This deed will reek through Yoros and be blazed
Beyond the murky marches of the damned. (She sinks to her knees beside
Galeor, now prostrate on the floor and dying slowly. Tears fall From her
eyes as she lays her hand on Galeor's brow. )

Smaragad: Was he so much to you? Almost I have a mind
That the bowstring should straiten your soft throat,
But no, you are too beautiful. Go quickly,
And keep to your bed-chamber till I come.

Somelis: I shall abhor you, and my burning heart
Consume with hate till only meatless cinders
Remain to guest the mausolean maggots. (Exit Somelis, followed by Baltea and
the other women. The two chamberlains remain. )

Smaragad: (beckoning to one of the chamberlains):
Go call the sextons. I would have them drag
This carcass out and bury it privily. (Exit the chamberlain. The king turns
to Galeor, who still lives. )
Think on your continence eternalized:
You had not fleshed as yet your rash desire,
And now you never will.

Galeor: (in a faint but audible voice): I would pity you,
But there is no time for pity. In your heart
You bear the hells that I have never known,
To which the few brief pangs I suffer
Are less than the wasp-stings of an afternoon
Sweet with the season's final fruit.

SCENE II

The king's audience hall. Smaragad sits on a double-daised throne, a guard
bearing a trident standing at each hand. Guards are posted at each of the
four entrances. A few women and chamberlains pass though the hall on
errands. Sargo, the royal treasurer, stands in one corner, Baltea, passing
by, pauses to chat with him.