Как важно быть серьезным. Пьесы

УДК 
372.8
ББК 
81.2 Англ-93
      У 12

ISBN 978-5-9925-0776-8

Уайльд О.
У 12 Как важно быть серьезным. Пьесы: Книга 
для чтения на английском языке. — СПб.: КАРО, 
2012. — 192 с. — (Серия «Selected Plays»).

ISBN 978-5-9925-0776-8.

Оскар Уайльд (1854–1900) — английский писатель, досконально изучивший все подводные камни семейной жизни.
В двух самых известных своих пьесах («Веер леди Уиндермир» и «Как важно быть серьезным») он предоставляет читателю 
право самому ответить на живо трепещущие вопросы: следует ли 
безоговорочно доверять своей второй половине? Надо ли идеализировать спутника жизни или лучше принимать его со всеми 
недостатками? Прощать за ошибки, совершенные в прошлом, или 
безжалостно осуждать, сокрушая то, что строилось годами?
Красивый язык, парадоксальные, но и логичные высказывания, мягкий юмор, запутанность положений заставят читателя вновь и вновь обращаться к этой книге, а комментарии и 
словарик помогут ему в полной мере оценить прелесть и афористичность языка.
В книге приводится неадаптированный текст на языке 
оригинала с комментариями и словарем.

УДК 372.8
ББК 81.2 Англ-93

© КАРО, 2012

Lady Windermere’s Fan

A PLAY ABOUT A GOOD WOMAN

THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY

LORD WINDERMERE
LORD DARLINGTON
LORD AUGUSTUS LORTON
MR. DUMBY
MR. CECIL GRAHAM
MR. HOPPER
PARKER, BUTLER
LADY WINDERMERE
THE DUCHESS OF BERWICK
LADY AGATHA CARLISLE
LADY PLYMDALE
LADY STUTFIELD
LADY JEDBURGH
MRS. COWPER-COWPER
MRS. ERLYNNE
ROSALIE, Maid

THE SCENES OF THE PLAY

ACT I. 
Morning-room in Lord Windermere’s house
ACT II. 
Drawing-room in Lord Windermere’s house
ACT III. Lord Darlington’s rooms
ACT IV. Same as Act I
TIME: 
The Present
PLACE: 
London

The action of the play takes place within twenty-four 
hours, beginning on a Tuesday afternoon at five o’clock, and 
ending the next day at 1.30 p.m.

ACT ONE

SCENE
Morning-room of Lord Windermere’s house in Carlton 
House Terrace. Doors C. and R. Bureau with books and papers R. Sofa with small tea-table L. Window opening on to 
terrace L. Table R. Lady Windermere is at table R., arranging 
roses in a blue bowl.

Enter PARKER.
PARKER.  Is your ladyship at home this afternoon?
LADY WINDERMERE.  Yes — who has called?
PARKER.  Lord Darlington, my lady.
LADY WINDERMERE.  [Hesitates for a moment.] Show him 
up — and I’m at home to any one who calls.
PARKER.  Yes, my lady.

Exit C.
LADY WINDERMERE.  It’s best for me to see him before 
to-night. I’m glad he’s come.

Enter PARKER C.
PARKER.  Lord Darlington.

Enter LORD DARLINGTON C.
Exit PARKER.
LORD DARLINGTON.  How do you do, Lady Windermere?
LADY WINDERMERE.  How do you do, Lord Darlington? 
No, I can’t shake hands with you. My hands are all wet 

OSCAR WILDE

with these roses. Aren’t they lovely? They came up from 
Selby this morning.
LORD DARLINGTON.  They are quite perfect. [Sees a fan 
lying on the table.] And what a wonderful fan! May I 
look at it?
LADY WINDERMERE.  Do. Pretty, isn’t it! It’s got my name 
on it, and everything. I have only just seen it myself. 
It’s my husband’s birthday present to me. You know 
to-day is my birthday?
LORD DARLINGTON.  No?1 Is it really?
LADY WINDERMERE.  Yes, I’m of age to-day2. Quite an 
important day in my life, isn’t it? That is why I am giving 
this party to-night. Do sit down. [Still arranging flowers.]
LORD DARLINGTON.  [Sitting down.] I wish I had known 
it was your birthday, Lady Windermere. I would have 
covered the whole street in front of your house with 
flowers for you to walk on. They are made for you. [A 
short pause.]
LADY WINDERMERE.  Lord Darlington, you annoyed me 
last night at the Foreign Office. I am afraid you are 
going to annoy me again.
LORD DARLINGTON.   I, Lady Windermere?

Enter Parker and Footman C., with tray and tea things.
LADY WINDERMERE.  Put it there, Parker. That will do. 
[Wipes her hands with her pocket-handkerchief, goes to tea-table, 
and sits down.] Won’t you come over, Lord Darlington?

Exit PARKER C.

1 No? — (зд.) Да что вы!
2 I’m of age to-day. — (разг.)  сегодня мне исполняется 
21 год

LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN

LORD DARLINGTON.  [Takes chair and goes across L.C.] I am 
quite miserable, Lady Windermere. You must tell me 
what I did. [Sits down at table L.]
LADY WINDERMERE.  Well, you kept paying me elaborate 
compliments the whole evening.
LORD DARLINGTON.   [Smiling.] Ah, nowadays we are all 
of us so hard up, that the only pleasant things to pay 
are compliments. They’re the only things we can pay.
LADY WINDERMERE.  [Shaking her head.] No, I am talking 
very seriously. You mustn’t laugh, I am quite serious. I 
don’t like compliments, and I don’t see why a man should 
think he is pleasing a woman enormously when he says 
to her a whole heap of things that he doesn’t mean.
LORD DARLINGTON.   Ah, but I did mean them. [Takes 
tea which she offers him.]
LADY WINDERMERE.  [Gravely.] I hope not. I should be 
sorry to have to quarrel with you, Lord Darlington. I 
like you very much, you know that. But I shouldn’t like 
you at all if I thought you were what most other men 
are. Believe me, you are better than most other men, 
and I sometimes think you pretend to be worse.
LORD DARLINGTON.  We all have our little vanities, Lady 
Windermere.
LADY WINDERMERE.  Why do you make that your special 
one?1 [Still seated at table L.]
LORD DARLINGTON.  [Still seated L.C.] Oh, nowadays so 
many conceited people go about Society pretending to 
be good, that I think it shows rather a sweet and modest 

1 Why do you make that your special one? — (зд.) Почему вы 
считаете это своим достоинством?

OSCAR WILDE

disposition to pretend to be bad. Besides, there is this 
to be said. If you pretend to be good, the world takes 
you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn’t. 
Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.
LADY WINDERMERE.  Don’t you want the world to take 
you seriously then, Lord Darlington?
LORD DARLINGTON.  No, not the world. Who are the 
people the world takes seriously? All the dull people 
one can think of, from the Bishops down to the bores. 
I should like you to take me very seriously, Lady Windermere, you more than any one else in life.
LADY WINDERMERE.  Why — why me?
LORD DARLINGTON.  [After a slight hesitation.] Because I 
think we might be great friends. Let us be great friends. 
You may want a friend some day.
LADY WINDERMERE.  Why do you say that?
LORD DARLINGTON.  Oh! — we all want friends at 
times.
LADY WINDERMERE.  I think we’re very good friends 
already, Lord Darlington. We can always remain so as 
long as you don’t —
LORD DARLINGTON.  Don’t what?
LADY WINDERMERE.  Don’t spoil it by saying extravagant 
silly things to me. You think I am a Puritan, I suppose? 
Well, I have something of the Puritan in me. I was brought 
up like that. I am glad of it. My mother died when I was 
a mere child. I lived always with Lady Julia, my father’s 
elder sister, you know. She was stern to me, but she taught 
me what the world is forgetting, the difference that there 
is between what is right and what is wrong. She allowed 
of no compromise. I allow of none.

LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN

LORD DARLINGTON.  My dear Lady Windermere!
LADY WINDERMERE.  [Leaning back on the sofa.] You look on 
me as being behind the age. — Well, I am! I should be 
sorry to be on the same level as an age like this.
LORD DARLINGTON.  You think the age very bad?
LADY WINDERMERE.  Yes. Nowadays people seem to 
look on life as a speculation. It is not a speculation. 
It is a sacrament. Its ideal is Love. Its purification is 
sacrifice.
LORD DARLINGTON.  [Smiling.] Oh, anything is better 
than being sacrificed!
LADY WINDERMERE.  [Leaning forward.] Don’t say that.
LORD DARLINGTON.  I do say it. I feel it — I know it.

Enter PARKER C.
PARKER.  The men want to know if they are to put the 
carpets on the terrace for to-night, my lady?
LADY WINDERMERE.  You don’t think it will rain, Lord 
Darlington, do you?
LORD DARLINGTON.  I won’t hear of its raining on your 
birthday!
LADY WINDERMERE.  Tell them to do it at once, Parker.

Exit PARKER C.
LORD DARLINGTON.  [Still seated.] Do you think then — of 
course I am only putting an imaginary instance — do 
you think that in the case of a young married couple, 
say about two years married, if the husband suddenly 
becomes the intimate friend of a woman of — well, more 
than doubtful character — is always calling upon her, 
lunching with her, and probably paying her bills — do 
you think that the wife should not console herself?

OSCAR WILDE

LADY WINDERMERE.  [Frowning.] Console herself?
LORD DARLINGTON.  Yes, I think she should — I think 
she has the right.
LADY WINDERMERE.  Because the husband is vile — 
should the wife be vile also?
LORD DARLINGTON.  Vileness is a terrible word, Lady 
Windermere.
LADY WINDERMERE.  It is a terrible thing, Lord Darlington.
LORD DARLINGTON.  Do you know I am afraid that good 
people do a great deal of harm in this world. Certainly 
the greatest harm they do is that they make badness of 
such extraordinary importance. It is absurd to divide 
people into good and bad. People are either charming 
or tedious. I take the side of the charming, and you, 
Lady Windermere, can’t help belonging to them.
LADY WINDERMERE.  Now, Lord Darlington. [Rising and 
crossing R., front of him.] Don’t stir1, I am merely going to 
finish my flowers. [Goes to table R.C.]
LORD DARLINGTON.  [Rising and moving chair.] And I 
must say I think you are very hard on modern life, 
Lady Windermere. Of course there is much against 
it, I admit. Most women, for instance, nowadays, are 
rather mercenary.
LADY WINDERMERE.  Don’t talk about such people.
LORD DARLINGTON.  Well then, setting aside mercenary 
people, who, of course, are dreadful, do you think seriously that women who have committed what the world 
calls a fault should never be forgiven?

1 Don’t stir — (зд.) Не надо, не вставайте