14. LORENZO’S CHAMBERS INT NIGHT
BALTHAZAR’s manservant, SERBERINE, prepares flavoured vodka drinks for his master and LORENZO. The two PRINCES consume drugs off a silver tray.
SERBERINE himself is drunk, and quite forward.
BALTHAZAR
(sentimentally drunk; sobbing)
Oh! On that perfection all my thoughts attend
On whose aspect my eyes find beauty’s bower,
In whose translucent breasts —
LORENZO
My lord, though Bel-Imperia seem thus coy,
Let reason hold you in your wonted joy!
She in time will fall from her disdain –
BALTHAZAR
No! She is wilder and more hard withall
Than beast, or bird, or tree, or stony wall!
But wherefore blot I Bel-Imperia’s name?
It is my fault, not she that merits blame. (CONT.)
BALTHAZAR (CONT.)
(he looks at himself in the mirror)
My feature is not to content her sight,
My words are rude, and work her no delight.
My presents are not of sufficient cost,
And, being worthless, all my labour’s lost.
Yet might she love me as her brother’s friend –
SERBERINE
Ay, but her hopes aim at some other end.
(drinks)
BALTHAZAR
Yet might she love me to uprear her state!
SERBERINE
Ay, but perhaps she hopes some nobler mate.
(drinks)
BALTHAZAR
Yet might she love me as her beauteous thrall!
(forestalls SERBERINE’s response
with a dirty look)
Ay, but I fear she cannot love at all.
ALL DRINK.
ANGLE ON LORENZO
Rising as a young PAGE enters. The PAGE wears a TEDDY BEAR BACKPACK. LORENZO falls on the backpack and pulls out more drugs.
LORENZO
My lord, for my sake, leave these ecstasies.
And doubt not but I’ll find some remedy.
LORENZO pours more drugs onto the tray. The PAGE leans against his leg. He tousles the PAGE’s hair.
LORENZO
Some cause there is that lets you not be loved.
First, that must needs be known, and then removed.
SERBERINE
What if your sister loves some other knight?
BALTHAZAR
My summer’s day will turn to winter’s night!
LORENZO
My lord, for once you shall be ruled by me.
Hinder me not what ere you hear or see.
He goes to the window, and looks out, shouts to someone below.
LORENZO
Ho, Pedringano!
15. LORENZO’S CHAMBERS EXT NIGHT
PEDRINGANO, BEL-IMPERIA’s servant, is crossing the Quadrangle below LORENZO’s window. He stops.
PEDRINGANO
Sir?
LORENZO
Ven qui presto!
LORENZO throws a handful of coins at PEDRINGANO. PEDRINGANO scoops them up and hastens up the stairs.
16. LORENZO’S CHAMBERS INT NIGHT
LORENZO finishes the drugs on the silver tray.
LORENZO
By force, or fair means, will I cast about
To find the truth of all this question out.
ANGLE ON PEDRINGANO
Entering breathlessly. He is taken aback by the sight of MASTERS so familiar with their SERVANTS.
PEDRINGANO
Hath your lordship any service to command me?
LORENZO
Ay, Pedringano. Service of import.
It is not long, thou knowest,
That I did shield thee from my father’s wrath
In thy connivance in Andrea’s love.
I stood betwixt thee and thy punishment.
PEDRINGANO falls to one knee in gratitude.
PEDRINGANO
‘Tis true, my lord.
LORENZO
And since, thou knowest how I have favoured thee,
Now, to these favours I will add reward.
Tell truth – and have me for thy lasting friend.
PEDRINGANO
What ere it be your lordship shall demand,
My bounden duty bids me tell the truth.
LORENZO
Whom loves my sister, Bel-Imperia?
For she reposeth all her trust in thee.
Speak, man, and gain both friendship and
gold coins.
I mean, whom loves she in Andrea’s place?
PEDRINGANO
Alas, my lord, since Don Andrea’s death
I know not if she loves or no.
LORENZO
Nay, if thou dally, then I am thy foe!
He draws his knife, puts it to PEDRINGANO’s throat.
BALTHAZAR and SERBERINE think this is funny.
LORENZO
Thy death shall bury what thy life conceals.
Thou diest, more esteeming her than me!
PEDRINGANO
Oh, stay, my lord!
LORENZO
Yet speak the truth, and I will pardon thee.
PEDRINGANO
If Madame Bel-Imperia be in love –
LORENZO
What, villain? Ifs and ands?
He twists the knife, draws RED BLOOD.
PEDRINGANO
Oh, stay, my lord: she loves Horatio.
BALTHAZAR starts back.
BALTHAZAR
Horatio! He is my destined plague!
First in his hand he brandished a sword,
And with that sword, he gave me dangerous wounds.
They all stare at BALTHAZAR, as he drunkenly attempts to indicate his wounds. He has none.
BALTHAZAR
And by those wounds he forced me to yield,
And by my yielding, I became his slave.
LORENZO
Where words prevail not, violence prevails.
But gold doth more than either of them both.
He lowers the knife, hands PEDRINGANO more gold. He points PEDRINGANO at a big gold cross on the wall, with a miniature skeleton nailed to it.
LORENZO
Swear on this cross that what thou sayest
is true.
PEDRINGANO
I swear, by him that made us all!
BALTHAZAR
(still raging)
Horatio’s mouth doth carry pleasing words,
Which sly deceits smooth Bel-Imperia’s ears!
LORENZO
Let’s go, my lord, your staying stays revenge.
Do you but follow me, and gain her love.
Her favour must be won by his remove.
LORENZO hands BALTHAZAR a weapon. The PAGE opens the door.
SERBERINE
How likes Prince Balthazar this stratagem?
BALTHAZAR
Glad, that I know the hinderer of my love.
Glad, that I know on whom to be revenged!
SERBERINE
Sad, that she’ll fly you if you take revenge?
LORENZO
Yet must he take revenge, or die himself!
The PAGE and SERBERINE push BALTHAZAR towards the door.
BALTHAZAR
For love, resisted, grows impatient!
He exits, waving his sword.
LORENZO grins at the SERVANTS, and follows.
17. HIERONIMO’S GARDEN EXT NIGHT
HORATIO waits impatiently in his father’s garden, under the full moon. The creak of a gate in the wall.
ANGLE ON BEL-IMPERIA
Even more beautiful by moonlight. Her MAID gives her bejeweled hair a last fluff, and then leaves.
HORATIO
Now, madam, since by favour of your love
Our hidden smoke is turned to open flame –
They kiss, passionately.
BEL-IMPERIA
My heart, sweet friend, is like a ship at sea.
Possession of thy love’s the only port,
Wherein my heart, with fears and hopes long tossed,
Each hour doth wish and long to make resort.
They kiss again. He tears at her clothes.
ANGLE ON ANDREA’S GHOST AND REVENGE
Watching by moonlight. ANDREA groans and steps forward, tries to embrace BEL-IMPERIA as well. REVENGE pulls him back. Love is for the living, not the dead.
So obsessed is he, that, unlike REVENGE, he fails to notice PEDRINGANO, leading BALTHAZAR, LORENZO and the rest towards the bower…
ANDREA turns away from the sight of his lover with his friend. The OTHERS draw their knives.
18. CASTILE’S PALACE INT NIGHT
Beneath a huge, gilt-framed portrait of CASTILE on the Golf Course, surrounded by golfing trophies, the KING, the AMBASSADOR and CASTILE drink port.
SERVANTS decant old vintages and crack walnuts.
KING
Brother Castile, what says your daughter
to Prince Balthazar’s love?
CASTILE
Although she coys it, as becomes her kind,
Yet henceforth shall she follow my advice,
Which is to love him – or forgo my love.
KING
Then, Lord Ambassador of Portugal,
Advise thy King to make this marriage up.
I know no better means to make us friends.
AMBASSADOR
Here, here!
KING
I’ll grace her marriage with an uncle’s gift:
Her dowry shall be large, and liberal,
And if by Balthazar she have a son,
He shall enjoy the Kingdom after us.
AMBASSADOR
I’ll make the motion to my sovereign liege,
And work it – if my counsel may prevail.
The KING turns to CASTILE.
KING
Now, brother, you must take some little pain
To win fair Bel-Imperia from her will.
This Prince is amiable, and loves her well.
If she neglect him and forgo his love,
She both will wrong her own estate and ours.
They raise their glasses and toast.
CASTILE
Young virgins must be ruléd by their friends!
ANGLE ON THE SERVANTS
Rolling their eyes.
19. HIERONIMO’S GARDEN EXT NIGHT
HORATIO and BEL-IMPERIA vigorously make love against a trellis. The flowers all around them glow brilliantly.
ANDREA continues in agony at this, REVENGE continues amused.
He pulls ANDREA away from the sight –
– past an outraged LORENZO and a dispirited BALTHAZAR, peering through the gate.
HORATIO
Come, Bel-Imperia, let us to the bower
And here in safety pass a pleasant hour.
BEL-IMPERIA
I follow thee, my love, and will not back,
Although my fainting heart controls my soul.
HORATIO
What means my love?
BEL-IMPERIA
I know not what myself;
And yet my heart foretells me some mischance.
HORATIO
Sweet, say not so; fair fortune is our friend,
And heavens have shut up day to pleasure us.
BEL-IMPERIA
Thou has’t prevailed. I’ll conquer my misdoubt,
And in thy love and counsel drown my fear –
HORATIO
Put forth thy hand,
That it may combat with my ruder hand.
BEL-IMPERIA
Set forth thy foot, to try the push of mine.
HORATIO
But first my looks shall combat against thine.
He kisses her.
BEL-IMPERIA
Then ward thyself: I dart this kiss at thee.
HORATIO
Thus I retort the dart –
ANGLE ON LORENZO, BALTHAZAR, AND SERVANTS
Pulling on Balaclavas.
ANGLE ON THE GHOSTS
Watching.
ANGLE ON THE LOVERS
In each other’s arms.
BEL-IMPERIA
O, let me go; for in my troubled eyes
Now may you read that life in passion dies.
HORATIO
O, stay a while, and I will die with thee.
So shall you yield, and yet have conquered me.
The LOVERS COME WITH A GREAT SHOUT.
The GATE CREAKS.
HORATIO
Who’s there?
Enter LORENZO, BALTHAZAR, SERBERINE and PEDRINGANO, disguised. BALTHAZAR stumbles against the gate.
HORATIO recognises LORENZO, in spite of his disguise.
HORATIO
(confused)
Lorenzo!
LORENZO runs at HORATIO and stabs him. HORATIO staggers back. BEL-IMPERIA screams.
SERBERINE and PEDRINGANO throw a rope around HORATIO’s neck.
BEL-IMPERIA
O, save his life, and let me die for him!
LORENZO tries to hold his sister back; he calls to BALTHAZAR.
LORENZO
My lord, away with her, take her aside!
But BALTHAZAR runs at the struggling HORATIO and stabs him, too.
HORATIO
What, will you murder me?
BALTHAZAR
Ay, and thus! These are the fruits of love!
LORENZO
O sir, forbear: your valour is already tried.
He calls BALTHAZAR back; the two of them fight to subdue BEL-IMPERIA. SERBERINE and PEDRINGANO haul the bleeding HORATIO
up the trellis with the rope.
LORENZO
Quickly dispatch, my masters!
PEDRINGANO heaves on the rope. SERBERINE stabs the strangling HORATIO.
BEL-IMPERIA
O, save him, brother! Save him, Balthazar!
I loved Horatio. But he loved not me.
BALTHAZAR falls to his knees before her as HORATIO dies.
BALTHAZAR
But Balthazar loves Bel-Imperia.
She slugs LORENZO and breaks free, and runs to HORATIO’s body.
BEL-IMPERIA
Murder! Murder! Help, Hieronimo, help!
LORENZO
Come, stop her mouth. Away with her.
PEDRINGANO and SERBERINE grab BEL-IMPERIA and gag her.
BALTHAZAR kisses her hand.
LORENZO gazes up at HORATIO’s hanging corpse.
LORENZO
Although his life were still ambitious, proud,
Yet is he at the highest, now he’s dead.
LORENZO follows the others from the bower.
ANGLE ON HIS PAGE
In close-up, chewing his teddy-bear backpack’s ear, in horror and excitement.
20. HIERONIMO’S HOUSE INT NIGHT
HIERONIMO, in dressing gown and chain of office, comes downstairs carrying a torch.
HIERONIMO
What outcries pluck me from my naked bed,
And chill my throbbing heart with trembling fear
Which never danger yet could daunt before?
Who calls Hieronimo? Speak! Hear I am.
No answer. He goes to the front door and opens it.
ANGLE ON ISABELLA
At the top of the stairs.
ISABELLA
Hieronimo.
HIERONIMO
I did not slumber. Therefore t’was no dream.
No, no. It was some woman cried for help –
He goes out –
21. GARDEN EXT NIGHT
– and approaches the walled bower.
HIERONIMO
– and here within this garden did she cry.
And in this garden must I rescue her.
His torch light wipes across the trellis and the hanging corpse.
HIERONIMO
But stay, what murderous spectacle is this?
A man hanged up, and all the murderers gone!
And in my bower, to lay the guilt on me.
This place was made for pleasure, not for death.
He grabs a pair of garden shears and cuts the body down.
HIERONIMO
Those garments that he wears I oft have seen.
Alas it is Horatio, my sweet son!
O, was it thou, that called me from my bed?
O speak, if any spark of life remain:
I am thy father, who hath slain my son?
What savage monster, not of human kind,
Hath here been glutted with thy harmless blood?
O heavens, why made you night to cover sin?
By day this deed of darkness had not been.
O poor Horatio, what had’st thou misdone
To lose thy life, ‘ere life was new begun?
O wicked butcher, whatsoe’er you wert,
How could you strangle virtue and desert?
Ay me most wretched, that have lost my joy,
In losing my Horatio, my sweet boy.
ANGLE ON ISABELLA, entering the bower.
ISABELLA
(shrieking)
What world of grief! My son Horatio!
O, where’s the author of this endless woe?
HIERONIMO does not answer.
ISABELLA
Hieronimo, sweet husband, speak!
CLOSE IN ON HIERONIMO.
HIERONIMO
He supped with us tonight, frolic and merry,
And said he would go visit Balthazar
At the Duke’s palace. There the Prince
doth lodge…
ANGLE ON A SERVANT
Racing into the bower with a torch. JACQUES, too, discovers HORATIO’s body.
HIERONIMO
He had not custom to stay out so late:
He may be in his chamber. Go and see!
ISABELLA
Ay, me, he raves. Sweet Hieronimo…
HIERONIMO
Besides, he is so generally beloved,
His Majesty the other day did grace him
With waiting on his cup! These be favours
Which do assure me he cannot be short-lived.
ISABELLA
Sweet Hieronimo –
HIERONIMO
I wonder how this fellow got his clothes?
Jacques, run to the Duke of Castile’s presently,
And bid my son Horatio to come home.
I and his mother have had strange dreams tonight.
Do you hear me, sir?
JACQUES
Ay, sir.
HIERONIMO
Well, begone.
JACQUES doesn’t move. HIERONIMO points at the body.
HIERONIMO
Knowest thou who this is?
JACQUES
Too well, sir.
HIERONIMO
Too well, who? Who is it?
(ISABELLA sobs, overcome with grief)
Peace, Isabella!
JACQUES
It is my lord Horatio.
HIERONIMO
Ha ha, but this doth make me laugh,
That there are more deluded than myself.
JACQUES
Deluded?
HIERONIMO
Ay, I would have sworn myself within this hour
That this had been my son, Horatio –
His garments are so like.
ISABELLA
O would to God it were not so.
HIERONIMO
‘Were not?’ Isabella? Doest thou dream it is?
Can thy soft bosom entertain a thought
That such a deed of mischief can be done
On one so poor and spotless as our son?
Away! I am ashamed!
ISABELLA approaches him, lays her hand on his arm.
ISABELLA
Dear Hieronimo, cast a more serious eye
upon thy grief.
HIERONIMO
It was a man sure that was hanged up here…
A youth, as I remember. I cut him down.
JACQUES shines his torch on the blood-stained trellis.
HIERONIMO
If it should prove my son now after all…
Let me look again –
He grabs the torch and shines it on HORATIO’s face.
HIERONIMO
O God, confusion, mischief, torment,
death and hell,
Drop all your stings at once in my cold bosom
That now is stiff with horror. Kill me quickly.
Let me not survive to see the light
May put me in the mind I had a son.
ISABELLA
O sweet Horatio. O, my dearest son.
HIERONIMO
How strangely had I lost my way to grief.
Sweet lovely rose, ill-plucked before thy time.
HIERONIMO (CONT.)
Fair worthy son, not conquered but betrayed,
I’ll kiss thee now, for words with tears are
stained.
He kisses his son’s corpse, just as he kissed the living HORATIO.
Breaking away, he finds ANDREA’s scarf sticking to him, fresh with HORATIO’s RED BLOOD.
HIERONIMO
See’st thou this handkerchief, besmirched
with blood?
It shall not from me, till I take revenge.
HIERONIMO wraps the bloody scarf around his neck.
ISABELLA
The heavens are just; murder cannot be hid.
Time is the author both of truth and right.
And time will bring this treachery to light.
HIERONIMO
See’st thou those wounds that yet are
bleeding fresh?
I’ll not entomb them, till I have revenged!
ANDREA and REVENGE enter the frame.
HIERONIMO
Come, Isabella, now let’s take him up,
And bear him in from out this cursed place.
The GHOSTS watch as HIERONIMO, ISABELLA and JACQUES carry HORATIO’s body to the house.
It is almost dawn. A church bell rings.
HORATIO’S GHOST appears, staring after its own corpse.
ANDREA
(to REVENGE)
Brought thou me hither to increase my pain?
I looked that Balthazar should have been slain
But ‘tis my friend Horatio instead!
And, they abuse fair Bel-Imperia,
On whom I doted, more than all the world…
REVENGE
Thou talkest of harvest, when the corn is green.
The end is crown of every work well done.
The sickle comes not, till the corn be ripe.
Be still – and ‘ere I lead thee from this place
I’ll show thee Balthazar in heavy case.
CUT TO —
22. LORENZO’S CHAMBERS INT DAWN
By the rosy light of dawn, an ORGY is in progress – LORENZO, SERBERINE, PEDRINGANO, the PAGE, all in the throes of depravity and loud, thumpity music, with WHITE CARTONS of half-consumed TAKE OUT FOOD scattered about.
To spare us the details, the camera remains on BALTHAZAR, passed out, snoring noisily on the sofa.
TILT UP TO —
23. GUEST ROOM INT DAWN
– where BEL-IMPERIA is imprisoned. She tries the door. It’s locked. Goes to the window. It’s barred and too far down to
the street below.
Loud music thumps from the party room beneath her floor.
She goes through the drawers and cupboards, looking for some method of escape. Finds a BIBLE. Throws it against the wall in frustration. The spine breaks and all the pages fall out.
She has an idea –
24. SAME SCENE, MOMENTS LATER
BEL-IMPERIA dumps the pot-pourri from a glass bowl. She sets the bowl on the floor, pulls off her blood-stained dress and wrings it out into the bowl.
ANGLE ON THE BOWL
Filling with blood.
ANGLE ON BEL-IMPERIA
Dragging a dried flower from another bowl, breaking off the head, and sucking blood into the hollow stem, like a straw…
ANGLE ON A PAGE FROM THE BIBLE
The blood-filled straw describing letters on it…
25. STREET EXT MORNING
HIERONIMO hurries down the street. He is distracted, talking to himself.
HIERONIMO
O eyes, no eyes, but fountains filled with tears,
O life, no life, but lively form of death.
O world, no world, but mass of public wrongs!
Confused and filled with murder and misdeeds!
He shouts at the PASSERS-BY.
TWO DUSTMEN tap their foreheads.
SWISH PAN TO —
26. GUEST ROOM INT MORNING
BEL-IMPERIA spies HIERONIMO below. She shouts to him, but the traffic noise is too distracting. She seizes THE NOTE written on a page from the Bible, weights it down with pearls from her hair, and throws it through the open window…
27. STREET EXT MORNING
ANGLE ON THE NOTE
Weighted, falling, landing on a GUTTER above HIERONIMO’s head.
He fails to notice.
27A. ANGLE ON REVENGE
Sitting on the rooftop beside the NOTE. He picks it out and lets it fall again. Yawns and goes back to sleep.
27B. ANGLE ON HIERONIMO
Looking up —
HIERONIMO
Oh sacred heavens!
— as the note falls past him. He bends to pick it up.
HIERONIMO
If this unhallowed deed
Shall unrevealed and unrevenged pass,
How should we term your dealings to be just?
He sees the letter is addressed to him.
Begins to open it. The pearls fall out.
He reads aloud the words, written in blood.
HIERONIMO
“For want of ink, receive this bloody writ.
Me hath my hapless brother hid from thee.
Revenge thyself on Balthazar and him
For these were they that murderéd thy son.
Hieronimo, revenge Horatio’s death,
And better fare than Bel-Imperia doth.”
HIERONIMO is astonished. He lowers the letter.
Stares at the DUKE OF CASTILE’s mansion, up ahead.
HIERONIMO
What can I gather to confirm this writ?
Well, harkening near the Duke of Castile’s house,
I’ll close with Bel-Imperia, if I can,
To listen more, but nothing to betray.
He passes the GUARDS, who knowing him well, salute, and enters the courtyard of —