A Couple of Pages from the Life of a Ghost
after the short story "The Canterville Ghost" by Oscar Wilde
It is year 1604. And I have died.
Mister envoy... Lady...
Welcome to old Canterville castle.
Hello, my dear. Call me Lucretia, and my husband - Hiram.
Our kids....Virginia. Ms. Umney.
These are our rascals... Dick. Keath.
Keep in mind, Ms. Unmey, Dick is the ginger one, Keath is the big-eared one.
Maybe no need to remember that. We always punish them together.
It is year 1904. The house is sold. It is sold together with all its contents, including me.
You have obtained the old family nest of the Lords of Canterville.
There are ten bedrooms, two guest rooms, a dining room, a library, a kitchen, four stables...
and a unique ghost, the oldest in England. A ghost? I will be taking care of that.
Hurray! Was it killed?
It comes with the house? Does it work everyday? Does it pay taxes? When will we see it?
Mom, there is a stain. - Paint?
Blood, ma'am. Ordinary blood. On this spot, three hundred years ago,
sir Simon Canterville killed his wife.
That, of course, is a remarkable event, but by no means a reason to keep a stain for three hundred years.
Ma'am, nobody is keeping it. It is keeping itself.
Nonsense! Here is a detergent for everything, even English stains.
You see?
You see...
What happened to sir Simon? He perished without trace.
Nobody knows anything about his where abouts?
To throw about such antiquities...
That's England! England...
When alive, sir Simon was a merciless and impetuous man.
But after his death...well, for example, this incident with the duchess of Bolton.
Come in, my young friend...
In the year 1685 there was an incident with father Pierre.
Lord Simon, I feel sorry for you.
Your fate has been difficult. - How dare you!
The ghost of the Canterville castle does not need your foolish pity.
No, no, really, he does need it.
He's obviously caught some cold. Deliver him this potion.
I'm going mad from your materialism.
Mister Simon...hurray! The powder is not wet yet.
Today, the year 1904, you're unrivaled as always.
Sure! I paid five hundred dollars for this toy on Fourth Avenue in New York.
The ghost of Otis... The only, the genuine, the real one.
How are you raising your children! Is there nothing sacred for them?!
You're not quite right, Ms...
"Lord Simon Canterville"
There is some kind of mystery here...
If a man sinned in his life and died a terrible death,
and his soul left his body, but his body was not laid to Earth,
he is doomed to the life of a ghost. Sir Simon Canterville, page 66.
Sir Simon Canterville killed his wife in a tantrum.
Her brothers, as revenge, locked him in in a tower that can be seen at midnight...
Ms. Umney, are you sick? And how! Forty years in the same place.
A respectable house, a well-known ghost, and what's more, ...attentions...
Sir Simon...thank you. This will be the pearl of my collection.
Sir Simon, I want to help you. So you help me.
So... locked in a tower that can be seen at midnight from the library window.
I wanted what's best, sir Simon. I thought she bothered us.
Sir Simon died, feeble from hunger in the year 1604. He died, but did not rest.
His tempestuous spirit resides in Canterville giving panic and terror to every living being.
Lord, give rest to his miserable soul...
He is laid to rest forever. Yes, now the ghost is totally dead.
I want to say goodbye to you. I have nothing more to do here.
The tradition has been broken, the legend desecrated.
I am going to neighboring castle.
Their ghost is older than the one from Canterville. This is for you.
Thus...farewell, miss Virginia.
Although, you're the only person on Earth with whom I wouldn't want to part. Farewell,
Lord Simon Canterville, the ghost of Canterville.
The remains of sir Simon were laid to earth, and Miss Virginia spent a long time in
a strange bewilderment, thinking about life and fate in this and other worlds.
The facts on the shorty earthly existence of bodies just revealed profoundly the mysteries of the endless ways of the soul.
As a physical person, Miss Virginia got married, became a happy mother and grew old in love and care,
but the fate of her trembling soul remained a mystery and would not be ever described.
The End, Ekran 1993 Sub by Eus, august 2019 as revision of subs by Dust Angel