NOBLE MINDS

a play in one act

by Madeline Wall

25992 Lugo Drive, Loma Linda, CA 92354 (585) 766­4302 www.madelinewalltheatre.com March 2016

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For Ava, Eliza, Luca

And for Wendla, who would have been magnificent old.

I will read all their dreams to the stars.

­Steven Sater, Spring Awakening

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Cast

GIRL 1, to play CORDELIA, and others GIRL 2, to play OPHELIA, and others GIRL 3, to play LAVINIA, and others One BOY, to play himself, and everyone else. Production Notes Hyphens denote cutoffs. Ellipses denote uncertainty. Dialogue from Shakespeare’s original text is underlined. Grammar note: A character’s emotional and vocal emphasis should attempt to build the progression from normal to intense suggested by the following punctuation and fonts: Normal Elevated! Intensified REALLY INTENSE THE MOST INTENSE! From the playwright:

1. The three girls in this play are as much girls of today as they are girls of yesterday. They are as much girls of fact as they are girls of fiction. Make that clear.

2. The play can be read as a eulogy: that being said, celebration ­ even imbued with humor ­ is as true to its crux as mourning.

3. At the end of the play, the boy must be different.

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NOBLE MINDS by Madeline Wall

ONE.

Dim. Evanescing colors. A haunted space.

Black wooden boxes for multi­purpose use. Faded, light fabric draped above and below and around, shrouding structures, creating a peculiar, oneiric encasement, somewhat disordered. Miscellaneous objects ­ a crown, some rope, articles of clothing to layer. Weapons. Mirrors. Dried flowers. Intricately­molded glass vials half full of undetermined liquid.

The GIRLS lay on their backs in a horizontal row, their heads downstage. We are not sure if they’re breathing. The BOY isn’t sure either. He watches for a long while, then inches towards them. He isn’t trying to take up space. He inspects the girls, one by one, tremulous. GIRL 2 is shaking slightly, as if cold. Far to one side, the boy stumbles loudly. All the girls cover their faces. The boy moves upstage, cursing under his breath. He finds a box or a chair center. He finds a robe, perhaps, or a crown, or perhaps just plants himself upon the box with mock imperiousness. He slips subtly in and out of character throughout the scene.

BOY, as KING LEAR

Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.

GIRLS

One.

BOY

One?

GIRL 1 (The girl in the center. When she stands, she is statuesque, linear, a young woman of leonine prowess and deep restraint. She has a piece of fabric tied meticulously around her neck. This is CORDELIA.

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We are in England ­ a teetering, simmering England, where each step is taken carefully.)

King Lear. (Pause.)

Meantime we shall express ­

LEAR

Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.

Know that we have divided

In three our kingdom: and ‘tis our fast intent

To shake all cares and burdens from our age;

Conferring them on younger strengths, while we

Unburthen’d crawl toward death.

Tell me, my daughters, ­­

Since now we will divest us both of rule,

Interest of territory, cares of state, ­­

Which of you shall we say doth love us most?

That we our largest bounty may extend

Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril,

Our eldest­born, speak first.

GIRL 2, as GONERIL

Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;

Dearer than eye­sight, space, and liberty;

Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;

No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;

As much as child e'er loved, or father found;

A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;

Beyond all manner of so much I love you.

CORDELIA

(Aside) What shall Cordelia speak?

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Love, and be silent.

LEAR

Of all these bounds, even from this line to this,

With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd,

With plenteous rivers and wide­skirted meads,

We make thee lady: to thine and thy husband's issue

Be this perpetual. What says our second daughter,

Our dearest Regan? Speak.

GIRL 3, as REGAN

Sir, I am made

Of the self­same metal that my sister is,

And prize me at her worth. In my true heart

I find she names my very deed of love;

Only she comes too short: that I profess

Myself an enemy to all other joys,

Which the most precious square of sense possesses;

And find I am alone felicitate

In your dear highness' love.

CORDELIA

(Aside) Then poor Cordelia!

And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love’s

More richer than my tongue.

LEAR

To thee and thine hereditary ever

Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom;

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No less in space, validity, and pleasure,

Than that conferr'd on Goneril. Now, our joy,

Although the last, not least; what can you say to draw

A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.

CORDELIA sits up, her back to us.

CORDELIA

Nothing, my lord.

LEAR

Nothing!

CORDELIA

Nothing.

LEAR

Nothing will come of nothing; speak again.

GIRLS 2 and 3 come to CORDELIA, and turn her sharply using the fabric tied about her neck. Then they move upstage to flank LEAR.

CORDELIA

Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave

My heart into my mouth: I love your majesty

According to my bond; nor more nor less.

LEAR

How, how Cordelia! mend your speech a little,

Lest it may mar your fortunes.

CORDELIA

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Good my lord,

You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I

Return those duties back as are right fit,

Obey you, love you, and most honour you.

Why have my sisters husbands, if they say

They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed,

That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry

Half my love with him, half my care and duty:

Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters,

To love my father all.

LEAR

But goes thy heart with this?

CORDELIA

Ay, good my lord.

LEAR

So young, and so untender?

CORDELIA

So young, my lord, and true.

LEAR

(As the speech escalates, it gathers the voices of GONERIL and REGAN, amplifying the sound through echo and lines barked in unison. CORDELIA mouths the speech, as if remembering it.)

Let it be so; thy truth, then, be thy dower:

For, by the sacred radiance of the sun,

The mysteries of Hecate, and the night;

By all the operation of the orbs

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From whom we do exist, and cease to be;

Here I disclaim all my paternal care,

Propinquity and property of blood,

And as a stranger to my heart and me

Hold thee, from this, for ever…

And now the three angry voices decrescendo; the girls drop out, LEAR’s voice eventually diminishes to mouthing, and CORDELIA takes over, in a calm recitation.

CORDELIA

...The barbarous Scythian,

Or he that makes his generation messes

To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom

Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and relieved,

As thou my sometime daughter.

(continuing with Lear’s speech, her voice forming the sound as the BOY mouths it behind her.)

Peace.

Come not between the dragon and his wrath.

I loved her most, and thought to set my rest

On her kind nursery. Hence, and avoid my sight!

So be my grave my peace, as here I give

Her father's heart from her!

With my two daughters' dowers digest this third:

Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her.

GIRL 3

The king of England likes his women, generally speaking. He likes his girls carved out of hollow

material with limited functionality. If one can inhabit her role with full commitment ­

GIRL 2

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It’s a slippery predicament ­ like quicksand. Sometimes the better chance of escaping presents

itself when one discovers the correct balance between resistance and resignation.

GIRL 3

So you accept what traps you. You walk right up to the line and you acknowledge it, greet it.

And then you gently press it back.

GIRL 2

Ideally not hard enough to do any damage.

CORDELIA

(GIRLS 2 and 3 seize CORDELIA, pin her arms down and hold her in place) I yet beseech your majesty,­­

If for I want that glib and oily art,

To speak and purpose not; since what I well intend,

I'll do't before I speak,­­that you make known

It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,

No unchaste action, or dishonour'd step,

That hath deprived me of your grace and favour;

But even for want of that for which I am richer,

A still­soliciting eye, and such a tongue

As I am glad I have not, though not to have it

Hath lost me in your liking.

LEAR

Better thou

Hadst not been born than not to have pleased me better.

GIRL 2

So there she stands

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If aught within that little seeming substance

Her price has fall’n.

GIRL 3

‘Tis most strange,

That she, that even but now was his best object,

The argument of his praise, balm of his age,

Most best, most dearest, should in this trice of time

Commit a thing so monstrous, to dismantle

So many folds of favour. Sure, her offence

Must be of such unnatural degree,

That monsters it ­

CORDELIA

(She motions for GIRL 3 to stop.) I was...twelve when Regan married Cornwall. I didn’t attend the ceremony; my father was busy

and preferred to keep me at least in his periphery ­ he would call me over and have me stand on

his feet and dance me around the hall between appointments...but I do remember the day my

sister was taken away. Because that’s what it was. She went willingly, of course, but he was a

rapacious man with flared nostrils and he reeked of an artificial quality that I could not place. He

looked me up and down ­ and I was a gangly, developing little thing; there wasn’t much to look

at ­ and he said ­

BOY

Now who might you be?

CORDELIA

And I just told him, “Cordelia.” I’d only started bleeding that summer and I shifted quite

uncomfortably in my seat, and Regan’s husband seemed disgruntled that I hadn’t the words to

flatter him, which was bewildering to me, because I didn’t think that was my job. But he looked

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back at me before he left with my sister and examined me thoroughly again, like he was

considering an exchange.

Goneril must have misread my reaction, or perhaps she’d understood it all and wished to knock

me down, but she told me ­

GIRL 2

Don’t worry, sister. There will be other men to please.

GIRL 3

Which is true ­ they are not an endangered species.

GIRL 2

Even after Cordelia is disowned by her father ­

ALL

For the sin of integrity ­

GIRL 2

­ she is desired by both the Duke of Burgundy and the King of France.

GIRL 3

The former of which refuses to take her since her impressive royal dowry was...repealed.

CORDELIA

Peace be with Burgundy!

Since that respects of fortune are his love,

I shall not be his wife.

BOY, as DUKE OF BURGUNDY

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The product has spoken.

(GIRL 3 shoves him onto the ground.)

GIRL 2

The king of France, however, seems already enraptured.

(she helps the BOY off the ground, their eyes meeting for a moment. He takes a dead flower tangled in her hair, and turns to CORDELIA, presents it to her.)

CORDELIA (taking the flower)

Did you ask her?

Did you ask if you could take this?

BOY

No.

CORDELIA

(somewhat stiffly) Thank you; you’re very kind.

BOY, as KING OF FRANCE

I am sorry. For your misfortune. I don’t think it courteous to ask what exactly you did to upset

your father, but truthfully, I cannot imagine much foulness coming out of your mouth.

CORDELIA

It wasn’t foul.

FRANCE

Was it queen­like?

CORDELIA

That is not for me to decide.

I am sorry for the money you lost. I know that must ­

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FRANCE

(quickly) It’s immaterial.

Besides, we won’t want for money.

CORDELIA

He speaks of the future, and I feel as if I’ve barely entered the present.

GIRL 2

She did not love him.

GIRL 3

Could not love him.

CORDELIA

Felt nothing for him.

GIRL 3

Her love abounded ­ it threatened to explode out of her from all pores ­ but she was very

particular about who she allotted it to.

GIRL 2

One could call her almost stingy.

GIRL 3

Exclusive.

CORDELIA

Exploitative.

(falling to her knees)

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Your Majesty, I am eternally grateful for your generosity, and I am indebted to you in more ways

than one. I can do everything you ask of me, and will do so, in time, as is my duty. And my

desire. But I must return to England.

FRANCE

England!

CORDELIA

England.

FRANCE

We just left England.

CORDELIA

My father ­ my king’s ­ health is failing, and my sisters are greedy and cold. I fear this may be a

ruinous time, and I cannot serve a new people if I first abandon my countrymen. England will be

laid to waste in weeks ­

GIRL 3

And now and then an ample tear trill'd down

Her delicate cheek: it seem'd she was a queen

Over her passion; who, most rebel­like,

Sought to be king o'er her.

GIRL 2

Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears

As pearls from diamonds dropp'd. In brief,

Sorrow would be a rarity most beloved,

If all could so become it.

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GIRLS 2 and 3, in round

Let pity not be believed!' There she shook

The holy water from her heavenly eyes,

And clamour moisten'd: then away she started

To deal with grief ­

FRANCE

(Just as CORDELIA is preparing to beg)

What do you propose?

(A change. She stands; he kisses her hand.)

CORDELIA (As battle preparations begin around her, the rest of the cast transforming.)

I used to play with swords as a child. Wooden swords, mostly. With the servants’ children. My

sisters are women in all my memories of them ­ I cannot picture them as girls ­ and their pulses

raced so quickly all the time and I wanted to live slowly. So I was a child before I was a woman,

and I found my resilience because I allowed myself time to search for it. I didn’t spend hours

laced into corsets at public functions without spending another few hours playing with swords ­ I

eased myself into womanhood. My eloquence and dexterity were painstakingly developed trades,

and finesse was a constant struggle, an art to be practiced.

Calculate your statements just so, and don’t be cryptic. Lace your speeches with silver, but not

too much silver ­ don’t tantalize them with anything too precious. Never ask a question you do

not know the answer to. Never be surprised. And do not ­ do not ­ dangerously upstage a man.

They like to take the lead; lead more quietly. Know when to speak and when to say nothing.

It’s really not so different from war.

When I married the King of France, I was still practicing. There was nothing perfect or

queen­like about me, and the transition made it worse. I needed to be a daughter before I could

be a wife. And I wasn’t finished playing with swords.

BOY

So you lead an army?

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GIRL 3

Sometimes you lead an army.

We are now in a tent; GIRLS 2 and 3, as well as the BOY, are officers, messengers, soldiers. They are under CORDELIA’s command.

GIRL 2

Or your husband does.

CORDELIA

Not when he has business at home. The invasion of England was my idea and my responsibility.

Not to mention ­

GIRL 3, as Messenger

Your father won’t see you, madam.

CORDELIA

Where is he?

GIRL 3

(to the audience)

He was ashamed ­ hiding from her. He couldn’t face what he’d done.

(to CORDELIA)

Well, there is a man in the cornfield ­

CORDELIA

Alack, 'tis he: why, he was met even now

As mad as the vex'd sea; singing aloud;

Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow­weeds,

With bur­docks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo­flowers,

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Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow

In our sustaining corn. A century send forth;

Search every acre in the high­grown field,

And bring him to our eye.

What can man's wisdom

In the restoring his bereaved sense?

He that helps him take all my outward worth.

GIRL 3

There is means, madam:

Our foster­nurse of nature is repose,

The which he lacks; that to provoke in him,

Are many simples operative, whose power

Will close the eye of anguish.

CORDELIA

All blest secrets,

All you unpublish'd virtues of the earth,

Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediate

In the good man's distress! Seek, seek for him;

Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the life

That wants the means to lead it.

BOY, GIRLS 2 & 3

News, madam;

The British powers are marching hitherward.

CORDELIA

'Tis known before; our preparation stands

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In expectation of them. O dear father,

It is thy business that I go about;

Therefore great France

My mourning and important tears hath pitied.

No blown ambition doth our arms incite,

But love, dear love, and our aged father's right:

Soon may I hear and see him!

Dusk. It is wet and bleak outside, and the French army huddles together, anxious. CORDELIA is distracted ­ her father has not been found.

GIRL 2, as a soldier, approaches her, quivering.

GIRL 2, as Soldier

Madam.

CORDELIA

I’ll be in in a moment; go warm yourself.

GIRL 2

(after a pause)

There are one hundred men searching for him. Surely ­

CORDELIA

I’m aware.

GIRL 2

How long has the king been...I mean, acting the way ­ that’s an inappropriate question, isn’t it?

CORDELIA

Yes.

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GIRL 2

I beg your pardon ­

CORDELIA

Neither intrusion into private matters nor political gossip is in the realm of what I would consider

appropriate.

GIRL 2

Are you angry?

CORDELIA

No. Not angry.

CORDELIA turns to her shivering troops. She gathers some of the fabric strewn about the stage, wraps it around their shoulders.

BOY

Madam ­

CORDELIA

You’ve no need to speak.

She continues to care for them.

BOY

You don’t need to do this.

CORDELIA

But don’t I?

(Beat.)

I need you rested. Warm. Numb limbs can’t fight.

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GIRL 3

I thought the storm was over.

CORDELIA

Not nearly.

(re: their expressions)

Well, that would be rather dull, wouldn’t it? A battle in perfect conditions. A victory won in the

mild­tempered weather. Who wants to tell that story? Where are the stakes? There’s no

monumentality. No poetry.

GIRL 2

Poetry?

CORDELIA

It’s important.

GIRL 3

Poetry and war?

(CORDELIA considers the duality, but chooses to say nothing. )

What if we lose?

CORDELIA

We won’t lose. We cannot lose; we won’t.

(She stands, moves apart from them.)

O you kind gods,

Cure this great breach in abused nature.

The untuned and jarring senses, O, wind up

Of this child­changed father!

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GIRL 2 opens her mouth to speak. Perhaps a bit of sound steals its way out. The cast turns toward her, startled.

GIRL 2

(with honesty)

I wonder what she would have been like old.

GIRL 2 ­ despite CORDELIA’s best efforts ­ is not warmed. She is given to shivers ­ she has shivered throughout most of the play. GIRLS 2 & 3 ­ led by the latter ­ seize the BOY and transform him into a very different LEAR than he was in the beginning. He drifts in and out of consciousness; two girls hold him upright. He is decrepit and ravaged ­ he looks very small.)

GIRL 3, as Doctor

So please your majesty

That we may wake the king: he hath slept long.

CORDELIA

Be govern'd by your knowledge, and proceed

I' the sway of your own will. Is he array'd?

GIRL 3

Ay, madam; in the heaviness of his sleep

We put fresh garments on him.

CORDELIA

O my dear father! Restoration hang

Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss

Repair those violent harms that my two sisters

Have in thy reverence made!

LEAR

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(as if in a dream; he does not see her)

Kind and dear princess!

CORDELIA

Had you not been their father, these white flakes

Had challenged pity of them. Was this a face

To be opposed against the warring winds?

To stand against the deep dread­bolted thunder?

In the most terrible and nimble stroke

Of quick, cross lightning? to watch­­poor perdu!­­

With this thin helm? Mine enemy's dog,

Though he had bit me, should have stood that night

Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father,

To hovel thee with swine, and rogues forlorn,

In short and musty straw? Alack, alack!

'Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once

Had not concluded all. He wakes; speak to him.

GIRL 2, as Doctor

Madam, do you; 'tis fittest.

CORDELIA

How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty?

LEAR

You do me wrong to take me out o' the grave:

Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound

Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears

Do scald like moulten lead.

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CORDELIA

Sir, do you know me?

LEAR

You are a spirit, I know: when did you die?

At this, CORDELIA bristles, sucks in a breath. Perhaps she fingers the fabric around her neck or quickly meets the gaze of GIRL 2 or GIRL 3. She is distressed.

CORDELIA

Still, still, far wide!

GIRL 2

He’s scarce awake: let him alone awhile.

CORDELIA

(kneeling)

O, look upon me, sir,

And hold your hands in benediction o'er me:

No, sir, you must not kneel.

LEAR

Pray, do not mock me:

I am a very foolish fond old man,

Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less;

And, to deal plainly,

I fear I am not in my perfect mind.

Methinks I should know you. Do not laugh at me;

For, as I am a man, I think this lady

To be my child Cordelia.

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CORDELIA

And so I am, I am.

LEAR

Be your tears wet? yes, 'faith. I pray, weep not:

If you have poison for me, I will drink it.

I know you do not love me; for your sisters

Have, as I do remember, done me wrong:

You have some cause, they have not.

CORDELIA

No cause, no cause.

(She embraces him.)

GIRL 3

(receding from the scene)

Cordelia’s dear father.

GIRL 2

Retrieved in body, but not in mind.

GIRL 3

It was a touching reunion.

GIRL 2

But from there everything unravelled in potently poetic fashion.

GIRL 3

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A storm racing toward a devastating theatrical climax.

GIRL 2

An army pummeled in battle by less deserving forces.

CORDELIA

We are not the first

Who, with best meaning, have incurr’d the worst.

GIRL 3

Cordelia’s husband was consumed with his own affairs, running a country ­

GIRL 2

And her sister had allies who wanted her dead.

GIRL 3

And her presence wasn’t strong enough, her voice just not loud enough ­

GIRL 2

And Cordelia found, ultimately, that in love, she excelled ­

GIRL 3

But in war, she was still practicing.

CORDELIA

And in war, a picturesque prisoner is ten times more poetic than a humbly defeated, amateur

general.

A circle of confinement is drawn. CORDELIA and LEAR are bound and lowered, placed

back to back in a miniscule space.

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LEAR

No, no, no, no!

CORDELIA

Sssshhh.

GIRL 3

(kneeling with CORDELIA and LEAR, as well as GIRL 2 ­ a line of prisoners)

As mad as the vex’d sea.

LEAR

No, no, no, no!

GIRL 2

As mad as ­

LEAR

Come, let's away to prison:

We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:

When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,

And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live,

And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh

At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues

Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,

Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out;

And take upon's the mystery of things,

As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out,

In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones,

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That ebb and flow by the moon.

CORDELIA

O, look upon me, sir,

And hold your hands in benediction o'er me:

No, sir, you must not kneel ­

Speech begins to overlap, intensify, escalate.

GIRL 2

Alack, 'tis he: why, he was met even now ­

GIRL 3

As mad as the vex’d sea ­

GIRL 2

­ singing aloud;

Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow­weeds,

With bur­docks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo­flowers,

Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow

In our sustaining corn ­

CORDELIA

O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown ­

BOY

No, no, no, no!

GIRL 2

Is this the promised end?

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BOY

O, you are men of stones ­

GIRL 2

The untuned and jarring senses, O, wind up

Of this child­changed father!

GIRL 3

Was this a face

To be opposed against the warring winds?

To stand against the deep dread­bolted thunder?

CORDELIA

Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia,

The gods themselves throw incense. Have I caught thee?

GIRL 2, GIRL 3, LEAR

In the most terrible and nimble stroke

Of quick, cross lightning? to watch­­poor perdu!­­

With this thin helm? Mine enemy's dog,

Though he had bit me, should have stood that night

Against my fire ­

GIRLS 2 & 3

Methinks I should know you ­

LEAR

Methinks I should know you. Do not laugh at me;

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For, as I am a man, I think this lady

To be my child Cordelia.

CORDELIA

Where do all the noble minds go?

BOY

(after a beat, and shedding any Shakespearean persona)

What do you mean?

GIRL 2

(All three GIRLS begin a transition as they explain this, preparing for the end of ONE.)

The sensible thing ­ the noble outcome ­ of an epic tragedy is death for the wicked, life and

prosperity for the good.

GIRL 3

For the emblem of the ideal and righteous.

GIRL 1

Cordelia.

GIRL 3

Overcome adversity, she says. Have integrity, and it will come back to you, or it will save

someone you love, or it will teach the world something useful.

GIRL 2

But poetry isn’t sensible.

GIRL 3

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And so how can we find sense?

GIRL 1

And a body to step into?

BOY

And…

GIRL 1

Nothing.

BOY

Nothing?

GIRL 1

One can’t be exempt from completing the aesthetic of an epic tragedy simply because she has

principles.

Well, that would be rather dull, wouldn’t it? A battle in perfect conditions. A victory won in

mild­tempered weather. Who wants to tell that story? Where are the stakes? There’s no

monumentality, no poetry ­

Through a bit of stage magic and manipulation of the cloth tied about her neck, CORDELIA is hanged. GIRLS 2 & 3 tip red contents from a vial down CORDELIA’s throat. Some of it stays on her lips.

BOY

WHAT ­ what is that ­

GIRL 2

Poetry.

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GIRL 3

Howl.

GIRL 2

Howl ­

GIRL 3

Howl ­

GIRLS 2 & 3

O, you are men of stones:

Had I your tongues and eyes, I’d use them so

That heaven’s vault should crack.

GIRLS 2 & 3 repeat “howl, howl, howl” over and over again as they move to their next positions, separate from the scene between LEAR and Cordelia’s body.

BOY, as KING LEAR

SSSSHHHH!!!

The GIRLS are silent.

KING LEAR

I know when one is dead, and when one lives;

She’s dead as earth. Lend me a looking­glass;

If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,

Why, then she lives.

This feather stirs; she lives! if it be so,

It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows

That ever I have felt.

O my poor fool is hang’d! No, no, no life!

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Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,

And thou no breath at all? Thou’lt come no more,

Never, never, never, never, never!

Pray you, undo this.

Do you see this? Look on her, look, her lips,

Look there, look there!

TWO.

We transition to Denmark, where the king has just died, and everything is whispered and half­wondered and in varying stages of decay.

GIRL 2

Two.

BOY

Two?

GIRL 3, as LAERTES

My necessaries are embark’d: farewell:

GIRL 2

(She is supple and wispy, with loose hair and a light touch. Her eyes are wide, and she still quivers with chill. This is OPHELIA.)

Hamlet.

LAERTES

And, sister, as the winds give benefit

And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,

But let me hear from you.

OPHELIA

33

Do you doubt that?

Throughout this exchange, GIRLS 2 & 3 tend to the corpse of CORDELIA. They arrange her limbs and place flowers around the outline of her form. They speak as much to her as they do to each other.

LAERTES

For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour,

Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood,

A violet in the youth of primy nature,

Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,

The perfume and suppliance of a minute; No more.

OPHELIA

No more but so?

LAERTES

Think it no more;

For nature, crescent, does not grow alone

In thews and bulk, but, as this temple waxes,

The inward service of the mind and soul

Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,

And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch

The virtue of his will: but you must fear,

His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;

For he himself is subject to his birth:

Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain,

If with too credent ear you list his songs,

Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open

To his unmaster'd importunity.

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,

34

And keep you in the rear of your affection,

Out of the shot and danger of desire.

The chariest maid is prodigal enough,

If she unmask her beauty to the moon:

Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes:

The canker galls the infants of the spring,

Too oft before their buttons be disclosed,

And in the morn and liquid dew of youth

Contagious blastments are most imminent.

Be wary then; best safety lies in fear:

Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.

OPHELIA

I shall the effect of this good lesson keep,

As watchman to my heart. But, good my sister,

Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,

Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;

Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,

Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,

And recks not his own rede.

LAERTES

O, fear me not.

BOY, as HAMLET

Oh, fear me not.

He is there, and GIRL 3/LAERTES is gone. CORDELIA’s body is left in its place. OPHELIA stands on one side of it, and HAMLET on the other. HAMLET extends a single flower to OPHELIA, but she cannot quite reach it across CORDELIA’s body.

35

OPHELIA

I’m sorry.

HAMLET

Is there something here that you would change?

OPHELIA

If I could?

HAMLET

If you could.

OPHELIA

I don’t know.

HAMLET extends the flower again.

That’s beautiful.

HAMLET

I know.

So what would you change?

OPHELIA

My face.

HAMLET

Your face?

36

OPHELIA

I like my face; I just wish it were different or older or more like yours.

HAMLET

I like your face.

OPHELIA

I know ­ er, thank you. Thank you.

HAMLET

Earlier I wished that flesh could melt.

OPHELIA

What?

HAMLET

O, that this too too solid flesh would melt

OPHELIA

Mine?

HAMLET

Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!

OPHELIA

Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

His canon 'gainst self­slaughter.

HAMLET

37

O God! God!

OPHELIA

Oh God.

HAMLET

What if ­ what if, Ophelia ­ what if our ­

OPHELIA

Our flesh could melt and thaw and resolve itself into a dew?

HAMLET

Right off our faces. Your face.

OPHELIA

My face?

It does, I suppose.

HAMLET

Your flesh melts off your face?

OPHELIA

Yes ­ no. No, I...I suppose that’s what happens when you die.

HAMLET

To your face?

OPHELIA

If it’s hot.

38

HAMLET

Off your face?

OPHELIA

Not just your face, I guess. Your whole body.

HAMLET

Your flesh melts off your whole body?!?

OPHELIA

Not mine.

HAMLET

Is your body different?

OPHELIA

Not mine specifically. Not….I don’t know. I guess it wouldn’t matter.

HAMLET

Why would it not matter?

OPHELIA

If I were dead, it wouldn’t matter.

HAMLET

It would matter to me.

OPHELIA

39

It would...why would it matter to you?

Beat.

HAMLET

My father died.

OPHELIA

I know. I’m sorry ­

HAMLET

He shouldn’t have died.

OPHELIA

I know.

HAMLET

Do you? But do you understand that?

OPHELIA

What?

HAMLET

How my father died? Do you?

OPHELIA

What don’t I understand what do I need to understand? That his flesh is melting? It was winter ­

HAMLET

40

My father was murdered MY UNCLE KILLED MY FATHER AND HE MARRIED MY

MOTHER AND MY MOTHER IS A WHORE!

OPHELIA

A what?

HAMLET

A whore.

OPHELIA

I know your father died and I am sorry your father died.

HAMLET

How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,

Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,

That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature

Possess it merely. That it should come to this!

But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:

So excellent a king; that was, to this,

Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother

That he might not beteem the winds of heaven

Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!

A whore.

OPHELIA

I’m very sorry.

HAMLET

41

Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,

As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on: and yet, within a month­­

Let me not think on't­­Frailty, thy name is woman!­­

She married him.

OPHELIA

I know. I’m sorry. She didn’t ­

HAMLET

A little month, or ere those shoes were old

With which she follow'd my poor father's body,

Like Niobe, all tears:­­why she, even she­­

O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,

Would have mourn'd longer­­married with my uncle,

My father's brother, but no more like my father

Than I to Hercules: within a month:

OPHELIA

It’s been two months.

HAMLET

THREE GODDAMN SECONDS!

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears

Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,

She married. O, most wicked speed, to post

With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!

It is not nor it cannot come to good:

But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.

42

They’ve inched closer together. Their foreheads are together. He hands her the flower. They kiss. She drops it. GIRL 3 places the flower in CORDELIA’s hands.

GIRL 3, as POLONIUS

How now, Ophelia! what's the matter?

OPHELIA

O, my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!

POLONIUS

With what, i’the name of God?

OPHELIA

My lord, as I was sewing in my closet,

Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced;

No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd,

Ungarter'd, and down­gyved to his ancle;

Pale as his shirt; his knees knocking each other;

And with a look so piteous in purport

As if he had been loosed out of hell

To speak of horrors,­­he comes before me.

POLONIUS

Mad for thy love?

OPHELIA

My lord, I do not know;

But truly, I do fear it.

43

POLONIUS

What said he?

Beat. OPHELIA swallows.

What said he? What did he say? You’re supposed to tell me what he said. What did you say?

OPHELIA

He took me by the wrist and held me hard;

Then goes he to the length of all his arm;

And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow,

He falls to such perusal of my face

As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so;

At last, a little shaking of mine arm

And thrice his head thus waving up and down,

He raised a sigh so piteous and profound

As it did seem to shatter all his bulk

And end his being: that done, he lets me go:

And, with his head over his shoulder turn'd,

He seem'd to find his way without his eyes;

For out o' doors he went without their helps,

And, to the last, bended their light on me.

POLONIUS

This is the very ecstasy of love,

Whose violent property fordoes itself

And leads the will to desperate undertakings

As oft as any passion under heaven

That does afflict our natures. I am sorry.

44

What, have you given him any hard words of late?

What have you said ­

OPHELIA

(She has pulled away from HAMLET.)

No, my good lord, but, as you did command,

I did repel his fetters and denied

His access to me.

POLONIUS

That hath made him mad.

HAMLET and OPHELIA encounter each other again, though time has passed and tension is palpable.

HAMLET

The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons

Be all my sins remember'd.

OPHELIA

Good my lord,

How does your honour for this many a day?

HAMLET

I humbly thank you; well, well, well.

OPHELIA

My lord, I have remembrances of yours,

That I have longed long to re­deliver;

I pray you, now receive them.

45

She retrieves the flower, and she offers it to him.

HAMLET

No, not I;

I never gave you aught.

OPHELIA

My honour'd lord, you know right well you did;

And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed

As made the things more rich: their perfume lost,

Take these again; for to the noble mind

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.

There, my lord.

HAMLET

Ha, ha! are you honest?

OPHELIA

My lord?

HAMLET

Are you fair?

OPHELIA

What means your lordship?

HAMLET

That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should

admit no discourse to your beauty.

46

OPHELIA

Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than

with honesty?

HAMLET

Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner

transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the

force of honesty can translate beauty into his

likeness: this was sometime a paradox, but now the

time gives it proof. I did love you once.

OPHELIA

Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.

HAMLET

You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot

so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of

it: I loved you not.

OPHELIA

I was the more deceived.

HAMLET

Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a

breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest;

but yet I could accuse me of such things that it

were better my mother had not borne me: I am very

proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at

47

my beck than I have thoughts to put them in,

imagination to give them shape, or time to act them

in. What should such fellows as I do crawling

between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves,

all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery.

Where's your father?

OPHELIA

At home, my lord.

HAMLET

Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the

fool no where but in's own house. Farewell.

OPHELIA

O, help him, you sweet heavens!

HAMLET

(The following two speeches are intermittently spoken and mouthed, with singular words yelled and others inaudible; he sounds like a fool.)

If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for

thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as

snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a

nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs

marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough

what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go,

and quickly too. Farewell.

OPHELIA

O, heavenly powers, restore him!

48

HAMLET

I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God

has given you one face, and you make yourselves

another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and

nick­name God's creatures, and make your wantonness

your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't; it hath

made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages:

those that are married already, all but one, shall

live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a

nunnery, go.

OPHELIA

O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!

The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword;

The expectancy and rose of the fair state,

The glass of fashion and the mould of form,

The observed of all observers, quite, quite down!

And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,

That suck'd the honey of his music vows,

Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,

Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;

That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth

Blasted with ecstasy: O, woe is me,

To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

GIRL 3

Do you love him?

OPHELIA

49

I thought that maybe I wanted to.

GIRL 3

Did you touch him?

OPHELIA

I don’t ­

GIRL 3

Did you kiss him?

OPHELIA

You know that; you saw that.

GIRL 3

Did you ­

OPHELIA

NO!

I know not to ­ you told me not to; that I know ­

GIRL 3

Not to do what?

HAMLET

Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

OPHELIA

No, my lord.

50

HAMLET

I mean, my head upon your lap.

OPHELIA

Ay, my lord.

HAMLET

Do you think I meant country matters?

OPHELIA

I think nothing, my lord.

GIRL 3

What do you think, Ophelia?

OPHELIA

I think nothing.

CORDELIA

Nothing, my lord.

OPHELIA

Nothing.

BOY

Nothing will come of nothing; speak again.

OPHELIA

51

I think ­

HAMLET

That’s a fair thought to lie between maiden’s legs.

OPHELIA

What is, my lord?

HAMLET

Nothing.

OPHELIA

You are merry, my lord.

HAMLET

Who, I?

OPHELIA

Ay, my lord.

HAMLET

O God, your only jig­maker. What should a man do

but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my

mother looks, and my father died within these two hours.

OPHELIA

Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.

HAMLET

52

So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for

I'll have a suit of sables. O heavens! die two

months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's

hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half

a year: but, by'r lady, he must build churches,

then; or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with

the hobby­horse, whose epitaph is 'For, O, for, O,

the hobby­horse is forgot.'

OPHELIA

What means this, my lord?

GIRL 3

(to the audience)

For us, and for our tragedy,

Here stooping to your clemency,

We beg your hearing patiently.

HAMLET

Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring?

OPHELIA

‘Tis, brief, my lord.

HAMLET

As woman’s love.

OPHELIA

You are keen, my lord, you are keen.

53

GIRL 3

She is importunate, indeed distract:

Her mood will needs be pitied.

She speaks much of her father ­

OPHELIA

­ says she hears

There's tricks i' the world; and hems, and beats her heart;

Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt,

That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing ­

GIRL 3

Yet the unshaped use of it doth move

The hearers to collection; they aim at it,

And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;

Which, as her winks, and nods, and gestures

yield them,

Indeed would make one think there might be thought,

Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.

BOY

'Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew

Dangerous conjectures in ill­breeding minds.

A low, repetitive tune has begun its hum amongst the cast members, with which OPHELIA harmonizes as she begins to sing.

OPHELIA

Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?

54

BOY

How now, Ophelia!

OPHELIA

How should I your true love know

From another one?

By his cockle hat and staff,

And his sandal shoon.

BOY

Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song?

OPHELIA

Say you? nay, pray you, mark.

(sings)

He is dead and gone, lady,

He is dead and gone;

At his head a grass­green turf,

At his heels a stone.

BOY

Nay, but, Ophelia, ­

OPHELIA

Pray you, mark.

(sings)

White his shroud as the mountain snow,

Larded with sweet flowers

Which bewept to the grave did go

55

With true­lover showers.

Well, God 'ild you! They say the owl was a baker's

daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not

what we may be. God be at your table!

Pray you, let's have no words of this; but when they

ask you what it means, say you this:

(sings)

To­morrow is Saint Valentine's day,

All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window,

To be your Valentine.

Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,

And dupp'd the chamber­door;

Let in the maid, that out a maid

Never departed more.

By Gis and by Saint Charity,

Alack, and fie for shame!

Young men will do't, if they come to't;

By cock, they are to blame.

Quoth she, before you tumbled me,

You promised me to wed.

So would I ha' done, by yonder sun,

An thou hadst not come to my bed.

I hope all will be well. We must be patient: but I

cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay her

56

i' the cold ground. My sister shall know of it:

and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my

coach! Good night, ladies; good night, sweet ladies;

good night, good night.

BOY

O, this is the poison of deep grief ­

OPHELIA

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart­ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream:

GIRL 3

There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray,

love, remember: and there is pansies. that's for thoughts.

BOY

A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted.

OPHELIA

ay, there's the rub;

57

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time ­

GIRL 3

There's fennel for you, and columbines: there's rue

for you; and here's some for me: we may call it

herb­grace o' Sundays ­

CORDELIA

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely. ­

OPHELIA

The pangs of despised love ­

GIRL 3

­ the law's delay,

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin?

CORDELIA

O you must wear your rue with

a difference.

OPHELIA

58

There's a daisy: I would give you

some violets, but they withered all when my father

died: they say he made a good end,­­

CORDELIA

­ who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscover'd country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.

BOY

Do you see this, O God?

CORDELIA stands, still enclosed in the outline of flowers that GIRLS 2 and 3 have built for her. OPHELIA steps into the flowers alongside her. She takes a drink of dark liquid from a glass vial, perhaps given to her by CORDELIA. They leave GIRL 3 behind; they are separate now.

OPHELIA

There is a willow grows aslant a brook,

That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;

There with fantastic garlands did she come

59

Of crow­flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples

That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,

But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:

There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds

Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;

When down her weedy trophies and herself

Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;

And, mermaid­like, awhile they bore her up:

Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;

As one incapable of her own distress,

Or like a creature native and indued

Unto that element: but long it could not be

Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,

Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay

To muddy death.

BOY

Alas, then, she is drown’d?

OPHELIA

Howl.

CORDELIA

Howl.

ALL GIRLS

Howl ­ O, you are men of stones!

GIRL 3

60

Had I your tongues and eyes­

GIRL 2

­ and ears and bodies and faces ­

GIRL 1

­ and minds, I would ­

GIRL 2

I would ­

ALL 3

I would use them so that heaven’s vault could crack.

GIRL 2

And cleave.

GIRL 1

And shatter.

GIRL 2

And drown.

GIRL 1

And hang.

GIRL 2

And ­

61

GIRL 1

And ­

THREE.

GIRLS 2 & 3 begin to beat percussively on opposite sides of the stage, as if reduced to conglomerations of muscle. We move to ancient Rome, where everything is filthier and more clotted and more naked and barbaric. The final girl is left in the center. There is a tightly coiled quality in even the miniscule parts of her: her eyes measure and dart with precision; she’s like a snake that has some poison but is very, very small. This is LAVINIA.

LAVINIA

Three.

GIRLS 1 & 2

Rome.

BOY

(with a gulp and wide eyes)

Titus Andronicus.

GIRL 1, as SATURNINUS

Noble patricians, patrons of my right,

Defend the justice of my cause with arms,

And, countrymen, my loving followers,

Plead my successive title with your swords:

I am his first­born son, that was the last

That wore the imperial diadem of Rome;

Then let my father's honours live in me,

Nor wrong mine age with this indignity.

62

GIRL 2, as BASSIANUS

Romans, friends, followers, favorers of my right,

If ever Bassianus, Caesar's son,

Were gracious in the eyes of royal Rome,

Keep then this passage to the Capitol

And suffer not dishonour to approach

The imperial seat, to virtue consecrate,

To justice, continence and nobility;

But let desert in pure election shine,

And, Romans, fight for freedom in your choice.

GIRL 1

Saturninus.

GIRL 2

Bassianus.

GIRL 1

Marcus.

GIRL 2

Lucius.

GIRL 1

Martius.

GIRL 2

Mutius.

63

GIRL 1

Quintus.

BOY

Titus.

GIRL 1

Titus with twenty one sons already dead in war.

LAVINIA

Twenty one brothers butchered in war.

GIRL 2

But four left ­ and one daughter.

LAVINIA

One daughter.

GIRL 2

Just one.

GIRL 1

But the emperor is dead, and so it’s son against son.

GIRL 2

The Andronici.

GIRL 1

64

The Goths.

BOY, as TITUS

Hail, Rome, victorious in thy mourning weeds!

Lo, as the bark, that hath discharged her fraught,

Returns with precious jading to the bay

From whence at first she weigh'd her anchorage,

Cometh Andronicus, bound with laurel boughs,

To re­salute his country with his tears,

Tears of true joy for his return to Rome.

Thou great defender of this Capitol,

Stand gracious to the rites that we intend!

Romans, of five and twenty valiant sons,

Half of the number that King Priam had,

Behold the poor remains, alive and dead!

These that survive let Rome reward with love;

These that I bring unto their latest home,

With burial amongst their ancestors:

Here Goths have given me leave to sheathe my sword.

Titus, unkind and careless of thine own,

Why suffer'st thou thy sons, unburied yet,

To hover on the dreadful shore of Styx?

Make way to lay them by their brethren.

There greet in silence, as the dead are wont,

And sleep in peace, slain in your country's wars!

O sacred receptacle of my joys,

Sweet cell of virtue and nobility,

How many sons of mine hast thou in store,

That thou wilt never render to me more!

65

GIRL 2

Give us the proudest prisoner of the Goths,

That we may hew his limbs, and on a pile

Ad manes fratrum sacrifice his flesh,

Before this earthy prison of their bones;

That so the shadows be not unappeased,

Nor we disturb'd with prodigies on earth.

GIRL 1

O cruel, irreligious piety!

LAVINIA

Dead sons for dead sons. This is normal.

TITUS

In peace and honor rest you here.

LAVINIA

In peace and honour live Lord Titus long;

My noble lord and father, live in fame!

Lo, at this tomb my tributary tears

I render, for my brethren's obsequies;

And at thy feet I kneel, with tears of joy,

Shed on the earth, for thy return to Rome:

O, bless me here with thy victorious hand,

Whose fortunes Rome's best citizens applaud!

I will most thankful be; for thanks to men

66

Of noble minds is honourable meed.

TITUS

Thanks, sweet Lavinia.

GIRL 1

Rome’s royal mistress, mistress of my heart.

LAVINIA

Isn’t this entertaining?

GIRL 2

Lord Titus, by your leave, this maid is mine.

TITUS

How, sir! are you in earnest then, my lord?

GIRL 2

Ay, noble Titus; and resolved withal

To do myself this reason and this right.

GIRL 1

This prince in justice seizeth but his own.

GIRL 2

Traitor, avaunt.

GIRL 1

Treason, my lord!

67

GIRL 2

Noble.

GIRL 1

Righteous.

GIRL 2

Virgin.

GIRL 1

Mine.

GIRL 2

Honor.

GIRL 1

Own her.

GIRL 2

Unscathed.

GIRL 1

Mine.

GIRL 2

Hair.

GIRL 1

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Mouth.

GIRL 2

Legs.

GIRL 1

Teeth.

GIRL 2

Gluteus.

GIRL 1

Mind.

LAVINIA

So entertaining, isn’t it? Satisfying.

TITUS

Boys, boys, boys.

The contest between GIRLS 1 & 2, as ‘THE BOYS,’ has become physical; they’re pressing against each other and poising to strike. TITUS leads them in a duel­esque charade, now featuring rifles. They walk away from each other, back to back, with LAVINA standing center. TITUS yells “DRAW” and the boys yell “BANG,” aiming to shoot each other, but each time, they hit different parts of LAVINIA as she speaks.

LAVINIA

Keep your legs together. Keep your arms behind your back. Keep your eyes lower than their

eyes; keep your chest back; keep your boobs out. Smile when appropriate. Close your eyes when

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appropriate keep your eyes lower than theirs press your knees together. Suck in your stomach; no

one wants to see that. Breathe through your nose; they don’t want to hear you breathing. Keep

your legs together no one wants to hear about the blood between your legs no one wants to see

that that’s not normal that’s not what blood is for. That’s not entertaining that’s never been

entertaining; you’re not entertaining when you’re ­

GIRL 2, as CHIRON

­ able and as fit as thou

To serve, and to deserve my mistress' grace;

And that my sword upon thee shall approve,

And plead my passions for Lavinia's love.

LAVINIA

(aside)

Clubs, clubs! These lovers will not keep

the peace.

GIRL 1, as DEMETRIUS

Why, boy, although our mother, unadvised,

Gave you a dancing­rapier by your side,

Are you so desperate grown, to threat your friends?

Go to; have your lath glued within your sheath

Till you know better how to handle it.

CHIRON

Meanwhile, sir, with the little skill I have,

Full well shalt thou perceive how much I dare.

DEMETRIUS

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Ay, boy, grow ye so brave?

They wrestle and spar.

BOY

Why, how now, lords!

So near the emperor's palace dare you draw,

And maintain such a quarrel openly?

Full well I wot the ground of all this grudge:

I would not for a million of gold

The cause were known to them it most concerns;

Nor would your noble mother for much more

Be so dishonour'd in the court of Rome.

For shame, put up.

DEMETRIUS

Not I, till I have sheathed

My rapier in his bosom and withal

Thrust these reproachful speeches down his throat

That he hath breathed in my dishonour here.

CHIRON

For that I am prepared and full resolved.

Foul­spoken coward, that thunder'st with thy tongue,

And with thy weapon nothing darest perform!

BOY

Away, I say!

Now, by the gods that warlike Goths adore,

This petty brabble will undo us all.

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Why, lords, and think you not how dangerous

It is to jet upon a prince's right?

What, is Lavinia then become so loose,

That for her love such quarrels may be broach'd?

CHIRON

I care not, I, knew she and all the world:

I love Lavinia more than all the world.

DEMETRIUS

Youngling, learn thou to make some meaner choice:

Lavinia is thine elder brother's hope.

BOY

I tell you, lords, you do but plot your deaths

By this device.

CHIRON

A thousand deaths

Would I propose to achieve her whom I love.

BOY

To achieve her! how?

DEMETRIUS

Why makest thou it so strange?

She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd;

She is a woman, therefore may be won;

She is Lavinia, therefore must be loved.

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What, hast not thou full often struck a doe,

And borne her cleanly by the keeper's nose?

BOY

Why, then, it seems, some certain snatch or so

Would serve your turns.

CHIRON

Ay, so the turn were served.

DEMETRIUS

O, thou hast hit it.

BOY

Would you had hit it too!

Pause. The BOY fears he has taken a step too far and that GIRLS 1 & 2 are offended beyond the extent of the role play. Then the girls, as CHIRON and DEMETRIUS, burst into raucous laughter.

DEMETRIUS

Well.

A speedier course than lingering languishment

Must we pursue, and I have found the path.

My lords, a solemn hunting is in hand;

There will the lovely Roman ladies troop:

The forest walks are wide and spacious;

And many unfrequented plots there are

Fitted by kind for rape and villany:

Single us thither then this dainty doe,

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And strike her home by force, if not by words:

This way, or not at all, stand we in hope.

The palace is full of tongues, and eyes, and ears:

The woods are ruthless, dreadful, deaf, and dull;

There speak, and strike, brave boys, and take

your turns;

There serve your lusts, shadow'd from heaven's eye,

And revel in Lavinia's treasury.

CHIRON

Thy counsel, lad, smells of no cowardice.

BOY

But it smells of ­

LAVINIA

Blood just don’t think about the blood between your legs just pretend you don’t have blood

between your legs that’s not what blood is for keep your legs closed keep your legs closed keep

your legs closed keep your ­

DEMETRIUS

Chastity ­

This minion stood upon her chastity,

Upon her nuptial vow, her loyalty,

And with that painted hope braves your mightiness:

And shall she carry this unto her grave?

CHIRON

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Come, mistress, now perforce we will enjoy

That nice­preserved honesty of yours.

LAVINIA

Thou bear’st a woman’s face.

She turns to GIRL 2 ­ to OPHELIA.

DEMETRIUS

I will not hear her speak; away with her.

LAVINIA

Sweet lords, entreat her hear me but a word.

GIRL 1

Listen, fair madam: let it be your glory

To see her tears; but be your heart to them

As unrelenting flint to drops of rain.

LAVINIA

When did the tiger's young ones teach the dam?

O, do not learn her wrath; she taught it thee;

The milk thou suck'dst from her did turn to marble;

Even at thy teat thou hadst thy tyranny.

Yet every mother breeds not sons alike:

(to the BOY)

Do thou entreat her show a woman pity.

Tis true; the raven doth not hatch a lark:

Yet have I heard,­­O, could I find it now!­­

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The lion moved with pity did endure

To have his princely paws pared all away:

Some say that ravens foster forlorn children,

The whilst their own birds famish in their nests:

O, be to me, though thy hard heart say no,

Nothing so kind, but something pitiful!

GIRL 2

I know not what it means; away with her.

LAVINIA

O, let me teach thee! for my sister's sake,

Be not obdurate, open thy deaf ears.

(to GIRL 1)

O Cordelia, be call'd a gentle queen,

And with thine own hands kill me in this place!

For 'tis not life that I have begg'd so long;

Poor I was slain when Ophelia died.

GIRL 1

What begg'st thou, then? fond woman, let me go.

LAVINIA

'Tis present death I beg; and one thing more

That womanhood denies my tongue to tell:

O, keep me from their worse than killing lust,

And tumble me into some loathsome pit,

Where never man's eye may behold my body:

Do this, and be a charitable murderer.

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GIRL 1

Away ­

LAVINIA

No grace? no womanhood? Ah, beastly creature!

The blot and enemy to our general name!

Confusion fall ­

GIRL 1

Nay, then I'll stop your mouth ­

BOY

WAIT ­ no, let her…

(calling upon KING LEAR)

Although the last, not least; what can you say to draw

A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.

LAVINIA

Nothing, my lord.

BOY

Nothing?

LAVINIA

Nothing.

BOY

Nothing will come of nothing; speak again.

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GIRL 1, as DEMETRIUS, cuts out LAVINIA’s tongue. LAVINIA protests ­ a guttural, throaty cry. GIRLS 1 & 2 splay LAVINIA’s body apart from either side. They hold up her arms and cut off her hands at the wrists, spilling the rest of the crimson from their vials onto LAVINIA’s arms.

BOY

Is this the promised end?

GIRLS 1 & 2 let LAVINA go; the BOY goes to her.

Throughout the speech, the BOY gathers LAVINIA in his arms and rises. She stands facing him, her feet on his feet, pressed up against his chest, largely limp. GIRLS 1 & 2 assist in tying the BOY and LAVINIA together, with fabric around their torsos and their arms.

BOY

If I do dream, would all my wealth would wake me!

If I do wake, some planet strike me down,

That I may slumber in eternal sleep!

Why dost thou not speak to me?

Alas, a crimson river of warm blood,

Like to a bubbling fountain stirr'd with wind,

Doth rise and fall between thy rosed lips,

Coming and going with thy honey breath.

Shall I speak for thee? shall I say 'tis so?

O, that I knew thy heart; and knew the beast,

That I might rail at him, to ease my mind!

Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopp'd,

Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is.

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And he hath cut those pretty fingers off,

That could have better sew'd than Philomel.

O, had the monster seen those lily hands

Tremble, like aspen­leaves, upon a lute,

And make the silken strings delight to kiss them,

He would not then have touch'd them for his life!

Or, had he heard the heavenly harmony

Which that sweet tongue hath made,

He would have dropp'd his knife, and fell asleep.

Do not draw back, for we will mourn with thee

O, could our mourning ease thy misery ­

GIRL 2

The end. Skip to the end.

GIRL 1 slits LAVINIA’s throat, tipping a third vial of liquid between her lips.

Silence.

BOY

Who kills her?

GIRL 2

Her father.

GIRL 1

Do you want it loosened?

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No response.

BOY

Are you angry?

GIRL 1

Yes. Sometimes.

GIRL 2

(to the BOY)

Close her eyes.

He closes LAVINIA’s eyes.

Throughout this conversation, GIRLS 1 & 2 sip the last of their vial’s contents. They grow drowsy.

BOY

Does this happen anymore?

GIRL 1

Does what happen?

BOY

(indicates LAVINIA)

This.

GIRL 1

Not in all countries.

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Beat.

BOY

There has got to be some...tell me if I’m wrong ­ some place somewhere, in the ether, some

destination ­ a storage receptacle for wasted consciousness. Lost ideas. What if someone had a

theory ­ a revelatory theory: the cure for a nation’s ills, the recipe for fulfillment, a thorough

explanation for gravity, a theory of everything ­ someone ­

GIRL 1

Someone without a tongue.

BOY

Yes. And then where does it go?

GIRL 2

Her tongue?

BOY

No, the theory ­ where does the theory go?

GIRL 1

Wherever its mind goes.

BOY

And where is that?

GIRL 2

Heaven?

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BOY

That’s so convenient.

That’s of no use to anyone.

GIRL 2 lays down quietly and falls motionless.

GIRL 1

The theory is of no use to anyone?

BOY

Right. If it’s in Heaven. Heaven isn’t a place for ideas or theories.

GIRL 1

But how was the theory of use to anyone beforehand if all we waxed and waned over was hair

and lips and skin and ass?

BOY

Because if we could just...if we could reframe the narrative for a second, and we could think less

about what we can touch, then...I don’t know ­ we…

He gropes for words for a moment, and then:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart­ache and the thousand natural shocks

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That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream:

ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause:

GIRL 1 lays down and is still before the BOY is finished speaking. He realizes the girls are not listening anymore. The BOY unfastens himself from GIRL 3. He inspects all three bodies, perturbed. He stomps, loudly ­ a clamor, a test. The girls cover their faces. Blackout.

END OF PLAY

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