SINS OF THE FATHER
(A play in two acts)
by Tom Fitzgerald
© 2015 by Tom Fitzgerald
215 Buena Vista Drive
North Kingstown, RI 02852
401-218-3514
[email protected]
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CHARACTERS
(22 roles; 8 actors)
FRANKLIN
Benjamin Franklin
CLARENCE / OFFICER1 /
SINGER2 / THUG1
Ben’s first Intermediary (guardian angel / Penn
Station police officer / singer at soup kitchen /
street thug
BARTHOLOMEW /
OFFICER2 / SINGER2 /
THUG2
Ben’s most-recent Intermediary (guardian angel) /
Penn Station police officer /singer at soup kitchen
/ street thug
ADAMS / HAWKER
John Adams / curbside newspaper hawker
CLERK / PEDESTRIAN1
Clerk of the celestial court (female dressed as a
man) / street pedestrian
WASHINGTON / SCOURGER
/ SARG / DAVID
George Washington / nameless man with a whip /
Sergeant Robbie Kortright / David Bornstein
MATHER / PEDESTRIAN2
Cotton Mather (17th and 18th century Puritan
theologian involved with the Salem Witch Trials)
/ street pedestrian
DEBORAH / MADONNA /
ALICE
Deborah Franklin / glowing Madonna (angel) /
Alice Kortright (SARG’s sister)
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SETTING
Much of the action takes place in the Plantation of the Unconfessed (purgatory) – initially
in FRANKLIN’s private apartment, and then in a celestial courtroom meant to resemble
the Cockpit at Whitehall, where, in 1774, FRANKLIN was humiliated before the King’s
Privy Council in the wake of the Boston Tea Party. Major action scenes also occur in
present-day Boston and New York.
TIME
The present (both in purgatory and on Earth).
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SCENES
PROLOGUE
Scene 1
FRANKLIN’s celestial apartment
Present
ACT I
Scene 1
Celestial courtroom
A few moments later
ACT II
Scene 1
FRANKLIN and SARG at the corner of
Washington and School Streets, Boston
Early morning,
present
Scene 2
FRANKLIN and ALICE at Penn Station,
New York
Mid afternoon
Scene 3
FRANKLIN and ALICE at Holy Apostles
Church in New York City
Late afternoon
Scene 4
FRANKLIN and DAVID at intersection of
37th and Locust on the Penn campus.
Dusk
Scene 5
SARG and ALICE at the intersection of
Washington and Milk Streets, Boston
Mid-January,
following year
EPILOGUE
Scene 1
FRANKLIN’s celestial apartment
Present
Scene 2
Celestial courtroom
A few moments later
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PROLOGUE
SCENE 1
(FRANKLIN’s chamber in purgatory. FRANKLIN
is sitting in a chair facing the audience. A white
candle is burning on a small table standing to one
side. A few papers and a quill pen are lying on the
table. A walking stick is propped against the chair.
FRANKLIN is wearing a medium-brown suit with
matching vest, the latter article betraying his
portliness. FRANKLIN is wearing bifocals and is
illumed as if by candlelight; the chamber is
otherwise dark.)
FRANKLIN
(looking to the audience)
‘Tis to be a grand day, ‘tis! For two and one-quarter centuries, I have been
confined to this apartment with neither parole from imprisonment nor promise
of resolution ever offered me, no reason given, other than that offered my
intermediaries, to wit: ‘He needs to do his work.’ Well, I’ve done my work! I
added twelve volumes to my Autobiography, which I had left shamefully
unfinished. What else was there to do? No one came forth with any farther
direction. But enough of all that! On this very day, I am finally to have my day
in court! And what a day it shall be, for how ever could it be otherwise –
(removes from the table a sheaf of papers tied with red,
blue, and green ribbons)
– given a petition as meritorious as this one, composed by no other than Mr.
Jefferson himself, chief scribe of the most momentous, most memorable public
document ever writ. Though I had been allowed no privilege of consequence for
two and one quarter centuries, I recently was allowed privilege sufficient to
engage a scribe of my choosing, as well as a petitioner of my choosing.
Countenancing not a moment of doubt on the matter, I chose Mr. Jefferson to
be my scribe, he having long since been elevated to his just reward, and I chose
no other than General Washington to be my petitioner, he also having been
ascended to his just reward.
(Three door-knocks from stage left; FRANKLIN shows
anticipation)
FRANKLIN
Aye, they are here! They who will escort me to my deliverance! Come in,
gentlemen! Come in! Come in!
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(CLARENCE and BARTHOLOMEW enter the chamber
from FRANKLIN’s right. They are illumed to the effect of
appearing ghostlike.)
(Each Intermediary is draped in a robe of two halves, one
half white, the other half black. On CLARENCE, the seam
between halves extends from the right shoulder to the left
hip and downward to the ankle. The whole of the gown is
girded at the waist by a braid of two silk cords, one black,
one white. Tethered by this braid, on CLARENCE’s right
hip, is a sword sheathed in a scabbard ornamented with
rubies, emeralds, and sapphires.)
(On BARTHOLOMEW, all of these aspects of equipage
are the same, but in opposing arrangement, such as to
suggest a looking-glass image. The only exception owes to
the individuals themselves, with BARTHOLOMEW being
several inches taller than CLARENCE.)
(Cocked on the head of each Intermediary is a rakish hat,
black as jet, ornamented not with feathers or plumes, but
with a single instance of a lush creamy-white blossom.)
(FRANKLIN pulls a pocket watch from his vest as
CLAREANCE and BARTHOLOMEW approach)
FRANKLIN
Why are you not the usual quarter-hour tardy?
BARTHOLOMEW
(approaching FRANKLIN)
Try as we might, we were unable to gather sufficient moss to impede our
progress.
(BARTHOLOMEW takes station on FRANKLIN’s left;
CLARENCE on FRANKLIN’s right.)
FRANKLIN
But did manage to gather a flower each, I see – of no less a specimen than the
Franklinia alatamaha.
CLARENCE
In your honor, sir, on this most momentous of occasions.
(BARTHOLOMEW and CLARENCE bow to Ben in
unison. FRANKLIN bows to each Intermediary in
succession.)
BARTHOLOMEW
Shall we proceed, sir?
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FRANKLIN
O what a glorious day this is to be!
(BARTHOLOMEW and CLARENCE turn 180 degrees,
with military precision. Simultaneously, FRANKLIN turns
180 degrees in his chair)
BLACKOUT
(The table and cane are removed.)
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ACT I
SCENE 1
(The ambient light rises to reveal a cavernous room
in which a long table toward the rear of the room
extends toward either side. The table is draped with
crimson satin; several chairs are arranged behind it.
The royal crest is magnificently emblazoned on the
wall behind the table, and is shielded on either side
by a scarlet tapestry hung perpendicular to the wall)
(A booming voice startles FRANKLIN)
ADAMS
You had your opportunity, Dr. Franklin, sir – Silence Dogood, madam – Miss
Polly Baker, madam – Poor Richard, sir – Father Abraham, sir – but you would
not profit of it.
(FRANKLIN’s chair turns to the right.)
(ADAMS emerges from behind a small table on which lay
several sheaves of paper, together with odd other articles. A
satin cloth, emerald green, is draped over the table.)
(ADAMS is dressed in an 18th century suit, green. A
wreath crowns ADAMS’s head.)
ADAMS
(approaching FRANKLIN)
In fact, sir, you were given every opportunity to render a full accounting of your
‘errata,’ but you steadfastly chose not to do this. In fact, you were given far
more latitude in this regard than was your due.
(stops about ten feet from FRANKLIN.)
Over two centuries and a quarter, you have accumulated the service of fortyfive intermediaries – close upon a celestial record – and each one of these, sir,
including the two present, the one being the first in your service –
(CLARENCE bows)
the other being the most recent –
(BARTHOLOMEW bows)
– has lodged at least one petition of extension in your behalf. The last of these
having expired, a fortnight ago, with no better outcome than any previous, the
present proceeding was authorized to commence at earliest date.
(ADAMS circles clockwise around FRANKLIN,
CLARENCE, and BATHOLOMEW. As he moves,
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FRANKLIN, CLARENCE, and BATHOLOMEW turn
such as to remain facing him.)
ADAMS
There is an old saying, sir – “One can lead a horse to water but cannot make
him drink” – to which, I must presume, you have some familiarity, given your
long history of imitating the like of it.
(ADAMS pauses, about ten feet from FRANKLIN, and
faces the audience.)
The wonder is that some Poor Dick did not take advantage, whilst opportunity
availed, to derive from this old saw its natural corollary, to wit: ‘A horse so
stubborn must surely be an ass.’
(CLARENCE guffaws)
(FRANKLIN glowers at CLARENCE. CLARENCE tries
to stifle himself, but with limited success.)
WASHINGTON
Dr. Franklin, sir. I stand at your service.
(FRANKLIN, CLARENCE, and BARTHOLOMEW turn
counterclockwise to face the speaker.)
(WASHINTON is standing behind a table that is essentially
a mirror image of the table ADAMS had been sitting
behind. WASHINGTON’s table is draped in royal blue and
holds a single sheaf of papers.
(WASHINIGTON is resplendent in military uniform –
royal blue coat, cream vest and breeches, snow-white silk
cravat. A wreath crowns WASHINGTON’s head.)
FRANKLIN
O Deliverance! Hail, sir!
(WASHINGTON bows. FRANKLIN bows in return.)
(FRANKLIN startles to a bolt of reddish light striking the
long table. A thunderous clap immediately follows.)
CLARENCE
BARTHOLOMEW
Alas!
Alas!
(CLARENCE and BARTHOLOMEW cower behind
FRANKLIN’s chair.)
(A bolt of greenish light strikes the long table, immediately
followed by a thunderous clap.)
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CLARENCE
BARTHOLOMEW
Heaven deliver us!
Heaven deliver us!
(A bolt of bluish light strikes the long table, immediately
followed by a thunderous clap. The table is now obscured
by ‘smoke.’)
CLARENCE
Woe is we!
BARTHOLOMEW
Woe is we!
(Debris / confetti falls from the stage ceiling, as well as
from the theater ceiling, if possible.)
(FRANKLIN turns 180 degrees in his chair.)
FRANKLIN
(addressing CLARENCE and BARTHOLOMEW, both of
whom are still cowering on the floor)
You may stand and seek after your courage, gentlemen, wherever you might
have misplaced it.
(CLARENCE and BARTHOLOMEW stand, showing a
sheepish demeanor.)
(The ‘smoke’ and debris / confetti clear. Where the long
table had stood now stands a crystalline bench, ten feet
high, fifteen feet long. To either side of this marvel, and
oblique to it by forty-five degrees, stands an ivory seat
elevated on a round ebony pedestal. Each seat shows a
splayed back in likeness to a scallop shell. Providing access
to each seat is a spiral of steps twining counterclockwise
around the pedestal in the one case, clockwise in the other.
The steps themselves alternate between ebony and ivory.)
(FRANKLIN turns 180 degrees in his chair to face the
crystalline bench. He is taken aback.)
FRANKLIN
O woe! What is this? What if it should melt!
(The crystalline bench begins to fill with light from a
luminous object descending from directly above.)
FRANKLIN
Are we to be rendered blind?
(CLARENCE rests a hand on FRANKLIN’s left shoulder.
BARTHOLOMEW rests a hand on FRANKLIN’s right
shoulder.)
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ADAMS
(addressing the audience)
Or might the very opposite be the case? What is your wager?
(As the luminous object descends, it elongates, resembling
ever more a tongue of fire.)
FRANKLIN
If, in the beginning, was the Word, there must needs have been a Tongue by
which to give it voice.
ADAMS
(addressing the audience)
Has our friend found his idol? What is your wager?
(Music, sweet and ethereal, begins and grows)
FRANKLIN
(listening; stirring with excitement)
O joy! ‘Tis my armonica that is singing! This is a most auspicious signal!
ADAMS
(addressing the audience)
Our friend invented a musical instrument, wrought of glass bowls, which no
one but him ever played, and he only to his adoring London landlady.
(The tongue of fire touches the top of the crystalline bench;
the music ceases; the tongue divides into three separate
tongues – one red, one green, one blue. These pulsate in
intensity. Within the body of the crystalline bench, a
wondrous chaos of colors coalesces here and there into
intricate designs, like snowflakes, which then melt into the
chaos of color from which they had only just emerged.)
(A robed figure springs to his feet atop the ivory perch to
the right of the crystalline bench. The man has a strikingly
angular face, reedy limbs, and is wearing a wig far too
small for him. The other elevated seat, to the left of the
crystalline bench, is unoccupied.)
(The clerk sings forth in a striking falsetto.)
CLERK
Hear ye! Hear ye! Hear ye! The Supreme Celestial Court of Petitions is now in
session. Petition of B. Franklin, 17 January 1706 unto 17 April 1790, to be
considered. Petitioners, here present, kindly state your case, or forever hold
your peace.
(The CLERK sits down. WASHINGTON rises.
FRANKLIN slumps his head forward.)
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WASHINGTON
May it please the court (WASHINGTON’s voice is a bit thin) – Benjamin
Franklin, Petitioner here present, born at Boston, Massachusetts, on 17 January
1706, a Sabbath Day, unto Josiah Franklin and Abiah Folger Franklin, the tenth
issue unto this union, the fifteenth of seventeen issued unto Josiah, an
industrious (CLARENCE giggles) and frugal chandler, does hereby petition the
court’s favour, for cause.
FRANKLIN
(whispering toward BATHOLOMEW)
Might we encourage our friend toward a bit more push on the bellows? Have
you a signal?
BARTHOLOMEW
What truth spoken plainly, sir, is not volume sufficient?
FRANKLIN
(shows surprise; leans toward BATHOLOMEW)
From what quarry, pray tell, did you mine that fulsome nugget?
BARTHOLOMEW
I picked it from the leavings of another, sir, he having claimed to himself all the
gems.
(FRANKLIN again shows surprise)
WASHINGTON
In his youth, the Petitioner did become proficient in the printing trade, by way
of a providential yet infelicitous apprenticeship to an elder brother, James, and
whilst learning this trade, the Petitioner did educate himself, by way of
considerable Industry and Frugality, in the essential arts – to include letters,
mathematics, discourse, and natural philosophy – toward gaining a general
understanding upon which to layer the specific.
FRANKLIN
(whispering toward CLARENCE)
A most auspicious beginning! Most auspicious indeed!
WASHINGTON
In the year 1727, having heretofore removed himself to the nascent city of
Philadelphia, the Petitioner, in his twenty-second year, did enlist several other
tradesmen into an intimate fellowship, named by him the Junto, to be dedicated
toward advancing the character and condition of each member, thereby the
community at large, which organization henceforth did serve as a model for
innumerable others of like service.
FRANKLIN
(whispering toward CLARENCE)
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Had you composed your plea for a hearing with such skill as we are witnessing,
the present proceedings would surely have been completed two centuries ago!
CLARENCE
(whispering toward FRANKLIN)
Likewise, sir, I suspicion, had you not continued your memoir unto a thirteenth
volume.
(FRANKLIN manifest shock)
WASHINGTON
In the year there following, the Petitioner, in his twenty-third year (the ambient
light begins to fade), did establish himself as a commercial printer, against very
great odds, owing to the Petitioner’s youth, and a grievous want of pecuniary
resources, but no want of competition, and did ultimately attain (the ambient
light continues to fade), by way of much Industry and Frugality, a level of
flourishment heretofore unknown amongst practitioners of his chosen trade (the
stage is now dark; WASHINGTON’s voice can no longer be heard) –
(A brief delay. The ambient light begins to rise.)
WASHINGTON
We have recounted this day, inadequately of necessity, we being unworthy to
the task, a life of uncommon personal achievement and public service. As no
summary from this quarter could serve to advantage that which has a’ready
been but summed, I would like in lieu of such to offer one fact as representing
the full body of the others, to wit: that the Petitioner did choose, at age fortytwo, to retire from private commerce, that he might place himself fully in
service to the public good, and that he did accept in this regard, over a tenure
spanning also forty-two years, little recompense, of any kind, in return.
(The back of the CLERK’s head is resting against the
scallop-shell back of his ivory seat; he is snoring.
CLARENCE and BARTHOLOMENW are sitting on the
floor with their backs propped against FRANKLIN’s chair.
Their heads are slumped forward, their feet extended
outward; they are both snoring.)
WASHINGTON
Indeed, whilst many a contemporary to the Petitioner was devoting his facilities
of mind and body toward filling his larder of spice, his lockbox of specie – or
chasing after offices bearing exulting titles – the Petitioner was devoting
himself to a virtuous improvement of his character and his prospects, that he
might thereupon devote himself to Civic and Domestic Service, to Invention
and Natural Philosophy, and to Diplomacy and Statesmanship, to the common
good. On behalf of Dr. Franklin, I thank the court for its indulgence.
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(WASHINGTON bows to the court, then to FRANKLIN.
FRANKLIN bows in return. WASHINGTON sits down.)
(FRANKLIN rises and pulls his chair suddenly forward.
CLARENCE and BARTHOLOMEW fall backward. Their
heads collide.
CLARENCE
BARTHOLOMEW
Yikes!
Yikes!
(The CLERK awakens with such a start that he strikes his
head against the back of his chair.)
CLERK
Yikes!
(CLARENCE and BARTHOLOMEW scramble to their
feet. They avoid a hard gaze from FRANKLIN.)
(The CLERK rubs the back of his head.)
(FRANKLIN looks to WASHINGTON, who shrugs
(A solicitous CALRENCE and BARTHOLOMEW help
FRANKLIN back into his chair.)
(The pulsations among the three lights atop the crystalline
bench suddenly increase, as does the kaleidoscopic activity
within the bench. A figure appears inside the bench. All but
the figure turns a fiery red.)
(MATHER’s head emerges from the bench. A wildly
oversized wig, flaring to either side, suggests a pair of
elephant ears become angel wings.)
FRANKILIN
Woe is me! I am undone!
(FRANKLIN looks to WASHINGTON, who shrugs.)
(ADAMS leaves his table.)
(The rest of MATHER emerges from the crystalline bench
to strains of the previous music. He is wearing a heavy,
dark robe. His clerical collar resembles a truncated bib.)
(ADAMS takes station to the right of mid-stage, facing the
audience.)
(The CLERK springs to his feet.)
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CLERK
Hear ye! Hear ye! The esteemed Reverend MATHER, chief examiner of these
proceedings!
(MATHER peers up at the CLERK and bows. The CLERK
bows in return.)
ADAMS
(addressing the audience)
The Reverend Mather did not advocate for or against the trials at Salem. Would
Dr. FRANKLIN have done better? What is your wager?
CLERK
(strikes his ivory desk three times with a gavel
Let the proceedings continue!
(The CLERK sits; MATHER takes a few steps toward
FRANKLIN, bows; FRANKLIN remains rigid.)
MATHER
You once visited me at my Boston home. You were no farther in years than
twelve, as I recall. You bumped your head on the way out of my library. I
advised that you ‘stoop, young man, stoop – as you go through this world – and
you’ll miss many hard thumps.’ Do you recall such counsel, sir?
FRANKLIN
I do – and have wondered ever since what counsel you might have given those
nineteen innocents at Salem had they been so fortunate as to have been invited
into your library.
MATHER
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. (MATHER leans forward, hands
on knees.) Dr. Franklin, sir – pray tell, why are you here?
FRANKLIN
(stiffens)
I am here as Petitioner.
(MATHER straightens and opens his arms toward the
audience.)
MATHER
(in a mocking tone)
He thinks he’s here as Petitioner.
ADAMS
(beckoning toward the audience with both hands)
Hardy laughter, kindly.
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(the audience laughs.)
(ADAMS bows toward the audience; throws kisses.)
(MATHER removes a sheaf of papers from ADAMS’s
desk and takes station in the fore area of stage-right.
FRANKLIN, CLARENCE, and BARTHOLOMEW
automatically turn in place to remain facing MATHER.)
MATHER
(looks to his notes; then a FRANKLIN)
A few clarifications, sir, on a few trifles, if you please.
FRANKLIN
Have I any choice on the matter?
MATHER
One holds sovereignty over one’s tongue in the absolute; would you not agree?
Except when one’s tongue has been excised from its fleshy temple by a surgeon
of ill intent.
MATHER
In the present temple, sir, call it the Temple of Truth, you are, and shall ever
remain, master of your own fate. As regards such, sir, I beg of you now a
clarification concerning the cause of no little consternation in certain quarters;
to wit: Soon after your purchase of a print shop in the City of Philadelphia, sir,
at a very young age, did you serve as landlord to the Godfrey family, they
occupying the rooms directly above your shop?
FRANKLIN
I did.
MATHER
And over the course of your lordship, sir, did you, with Mrs. Godfrey’s
encouragement, become romantically entwined with Mrs. Godfrey’s niece?
FRANKLIN
I did.
MATHER
And did you, sir, after winning the heart of this young lady, offer to take her to
wife for the tidy sum of £100, which sum would retire the debt you had recently
incurred in purchasing the aforementioned business, and thereby represented a
wolf at the door of this business?
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FRANKLIN
In response to an enquiry made by the young lady’s family, with Mrs. Godfrey
serving as Intermediary, I made representations as to a proper dowry.
MATHER
Proper for which party, sir? The young lady’s family made clear to you that
they had no such sum to offer; did they not?
FRANKLIN
They made remonstrations to that effect.
MATHER
And in response to those remonstrations, sir, you counseled the family to
mortgage their home such as to assume unto themselves the whole of the risk
you heretofore had been yourself carrying; am I correct, sir?
FRANKLIN
They held no legitimate claim to innocence. Had I softened my terms a little,
they would have acceded to them, as thereafter became clear. They but wanted
to unload a burden without taking on the equal.
MATHER
Are we to conclude then, sir, that this unfortunate young lady meant nothing to
you of herself – that she was naught to you but an expediency toward a certain
conveniency, one not quite attainable by exercise of virtue alone, or even by
appearance of same?
(FRANKLIN folds his arms across his chest and glares at
MATHER. MATHER consults his notes.)
MATHER
Now, sir, over the autumn of 1766, and into the spring of 1767, were you made
aware, by way of missives from your wife, as well as from your daughter, Sarah
called Sally, that a gentleman by the name of Richard Bache, proprietor at the
time of a dry goods shop on Chestnut Street, had become suitor for your
daughter’s hand?
FRANKLIN
I was.
MATHER
And your response upon gaining this intelligence was what, sir?
FRANKLIN
I was disapproving.
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MATHER
And the reason of your disapproval, sir?
FRANKLIN
Upon inquiry, Mister Bache’s prospects – thereby his motivations – thereby his
character – were discovered to be of questionable merit.
MATHER
Discovered, sir, or suspicioned?
FRANKLIN
Both.
MATHER
By whom?
FRANKLIN
William, my son.
MATHER
He being of intimate acquaintance with Mister Bache?
FRANKLIN
He being in a position to make discreet inquires. One need not be bit by a snake
to become acquainted of its intentions.
MATHER
And your daughter’s judgment on the man’s character, sir; it was commensurate
with your son’s?
FRANKLIN
It was not, nor could it be expected to be, she being under spell of an
infatuation.
MATHER
And your wife’s judgment on the man’s character, sir; it was commensurate
with your son’s?
FRANKLIN
It was not.
MATHER
She being likewise under spell of infatuation, sir?
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FRANKLIN
She being much solicitous toward her daughter’s happiness.
MATHER
And your sister Jane’s judgment on the man’s character, sir; it was
commensurate with your son’s?
FRANKLIN
I do not recollect her having offered an opinion on the matter.
(MATHER peers at his papers; looks again to FRANKLIN)
MATHER
Your sister had recently visited Philadelphia, sir, where she had met Mr. Bache,
and even more recently had lost yet another child to an untimely death – she
would lose eleven of twelve, sir, in her lifetime – and so, when she sat down to
write to you, her heart was heavy with grief; and yet, sir, she rose above all such
to give you cause for celebration.
(looks to his papers)
“But why should I entertain you with this melancholy subject when you are
called to rejoice at the settling in marriage of your beloved daughter to a worthy
gentleman whom she loves and [is] the only one that can make her happy. I
congratulate you on it and wish it may give you a lasting pleasure.”
(looks to FRANKLIN.)
Have you recollection now, sir?
FRANKLIN
I do.
(MATHER move closer FRANKLIN.)
MATHER
One must presume, then, sir, that you have recollection now of having allowed
your sister’s opinion regarding Mr. Bache, coming as it did from the only
sibling you considered your equal in judgment, to influence your own opinion
regarding this “worthy gentleman” – “the only one that might make her happy.”
Quite so, sir? In fact, you continued to make it quite clear, especially to Mr.
Bache himself, that you did not approve of
(looks to his papers)
“a proceeding that may be attended with ruinous consequences to you both.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Quite so, sir?
FRANKLIN
Where there is gold, or perceived to be such, there will be no want of diggers.
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MATHER
As in the example, sir, of the suitor of Mrs. Godfrey’s niece?
CLARENCE
BARTHOLOMEW
Ouch!
Ouch!
MATHER
Ultimately, sir, you begrudged to your wife sufficient license to permit the
marriage of your daughter to Mr. Bache, and assume unto herself thereby, of
course, full culpability, should your cautions on the matter prove superior.
(looks to his papers)
“I would not occasion to delay her happiness if you thought the match a proper
one.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
And so, sir, by sanction of your good wife, and in your absence
(looks to his papers)
“Mister Richard Bache, of this city, merchant, was married to Miss Sally
Franklin, the only daughter of the celebrated Doctor Franklin, a young lady of
distinguished merit.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
And the “lasting pleasure” wished upon you by your sister, sir, concerning your
daughter’s happiness, you thereafter manifested in what manner?
(FRANKLIN peers down at his clasped hands; he remains
silent)
MATHER
In fact, sir, for more than a year following the occasion of your daughter
gaining “her happiness,” did you not engage in a campaign of silence most
keen, therewith to communicate a disapproval most keen? Indeed, sir, did you
not refuse to respond to overtures made directly to you by your son-in-law? Did
you not, sir, refuse even to acknowledge your son-in-law’s existence, not even
to him, not even to your “beloved daughter,” not even to your dear wife?
MATHER takes a step closer to FRANKLIN.
MATHER
(looking to his notes)
“Above all things, I dislike family quarrels, and when they happen among my
relatives, nothing gives me more pain’ – ‘I will love that side best that is most
ready to forgive and oblige the other.’
(looks again to FRANKLIN)
Your words sir, as addressed by you to this same sister, Jane?
FRANKLIN
You take paint from one pallet such as to color another.
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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MATHER
(contorts his face)
Or do I but raise a little an odor of hypocrisy, sir? Do you not detect it, or have
you to your advantage that immunity peculiar to the barnyard wallower?
ADAMS
(still standing to the right of mid-stage, facing the audience,
beckons toward the audience with both hands)
A few titters, kindly.
(audience titters; ADAMS bows)
MATHER
When finally you judged your family sufficiently punished, sir, for – for exactly
what, sir? For being of their own mind? For exercising their own best judgment
on the knowledge directly available to them?
(FRANKLIN remains silent).
MATHER
When finally you loosed the cord upon a girded heart, sir, you closed a note of
greeting to Mr. Bache with the following declaration:
(looks to his papers)
“I can only add at present that my best wishes attend you, and that if you prove
a good husband and son, you will find me an affectionate father.”
(moves closer to FRANKLIN)
If, sir? If Mr. Bache is “a good husband and son,” then you will regard him
worthy of your affection? Is this your apprehension of being the party “most
ready to oblige the other?” Is familial affection a thing to be gained or given by
barter, sir? My affection for your obedience? Your obedience for my affection?
Is the heart no greater than another a marketplace for advantage?
(MATHER peers hard at FRANKLIN; FRANKLIN peers
hard at MATHER in return)
MATHER
You might protest that a single erratum, being singular, is of little consequence
in and of itself; that ’tis a pluraling of such that commands attention. Do I
correctly anticipate you on the matter, sir?
(FRANKLIN remains silent)
MATHER
Cat got your tongue, sir?
(FRANKLIN folds his arms across his chest.)
MATHER
Now, sir, in December of 1776, you removed from Philadelphia to France,
specifically to Passy, thereat to represent American interests to the Court of
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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King Louis XVI – and took with you, such as to assure their protection and
better their prospects, two of your three grandsons at the time – your bastard
son William’s own bastard son, Temple, then seventeen years of age, and your
daughter Sally’s elder son, Benny, then seven years of age. Have I indeed the
base facts correct, sir?”
FRANKLIN
(glaring at MATHER)
What of the marriage ceremony, sir, so sanctimoniously valued by you, is not
utterly arbitrary, and but “a little expediency in service to a little conveniency?”
MATHER
(looks to the audience)
Perchance have we pinched upon a nerve, sir?
(FRANKLIN continues to glare at MATHER)
MATHER
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Now, sir, clarify for the court, if you would, kindly, why it was that Benny’s
mother – Mrs. Richard Bache – well following your arrival in France, having
heard naught from you in seventeen weeks, felt it necessary to ingratiate from
you a declaration of assurance that her young son was comporting himself – in
her words –
(looks to his papers)
“so as to make you love him.”
(MATHER holds his eyes fixed on FRANKLIN for a
moment, as if in anticipation of a reply)
MATHER
Your daughter grows ever more desperate –
(looks to his papers)
“I have refused dining at Mister Clymers today that I might have the pleasure of
writing to you and my dear boy, who I hope behaves so as to make you love
him. We used to think he gave little trouble at home, but that was perhaps a
mother’s partiality.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
The obedience of the grandson in exchange for the affection of the grandfather?
Is this not the barter being represented here, sir? And is it not a remarkable
likeliness to the barter represented by you to your son-in-law, Mr. Bache; do
you recall, sir?
(looks to his papers)
“If you prove a good husband and son, you will find me an affectionate father.”
(sniffs with exaggeration)
Indeed, have we not here, sir, the odor of a little conditionality in service to a
little partiality?
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(FRANKLIN remains silent)
MATHER
In the year 1774, sir, shortly following your examination before the king’s
Council, you posted to your son William, then Royal Governor of New Jersey,
a letter urging him to remain in office despite the abuse delivered to his father
by the Council, until such time he should be forcibly removed.
(looks to his papers)
“One may make something of an injury, nothing of a resignation.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Quite so, sir?
FRANKLIN
Quite.
MATHER
And no quicker than might an ‘amen’ follow upon a ‘hallelujah,’ sir, you posted
to your son a second communication, in which you urged him to resign the very
office you had only just counseled him to hold fast upon.
Smith looked to his papers.
(looks to his papers)
“I don’t understand it as any favour to me or to you, the being continued in an
office, by which with all your prudence, you cannot avoid running behind hand,
if you live suitably to your station.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Quite so?
FRANKLIN
Quite.
MATHER
Now, sir, what are we to make of such a muddle of meddling? Should we
regard it a reflection of the author’s own ambiguity on the matter; or should we
regard it as no muddle at all, but instead an artifice by which you might educate
your son, by way of example, as regards the alacrity with which a man of
principle might accomplish a change in sentiment, hence in loyalty? In fact, sir,
up until your examination before the Privy Council, you and your son had held
equally fast to the notion of preserving the fledging chicks unto a felicitous
union with the mother hen, quite so? Indeed, sir, whilst you labored fervently
toward this end from your apartments in London, to peril, eventually, of your
own safety, your son labored with equal fervor toward the same end from his
offices in New Jersey, to peril, eventually, of his own safety; quite so?
(FRANKLIN remains silent)
MATHER
(looks to the three pulsating lights atop the crystalline
bench; then to FRANKLIN)
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There occurred then, however, your public humiliation by the Privy Council,
and of a sudden the partnership with your son became altered, by way of your
changing to the negative your sentiments regarding preservation of the British
Empire, and expecting your son to do likewise, indeed with alacrity; quite so?
(FRANKLIN remains silent)
MATHER
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Ay, but your son, yet holding fast unto hope, and choosing to honor the oath he
had sworn unto God and King, kept his own sentiments on preservation to the
positive – as did also, sir, I feel obliged to mention, several of your longstanding friends, including Mr. Galloway, with whom you had entrusted for
safekeeping the entirety of your personal papers, including the only extant copy
of your Autobiography; and as also did, sir, fully one-third of the population of
the colonies of the time, this fraction amounting to near one million English
souls.
(looks to the audience)
In fact, sir, as we have previously touched upon, what for your son was an
expression of loyalty to duty and king, by way of conviction and conscience,
became now for you, peering through eyes narrowed of grievance, an
expression of disloyalty, by way of spite and defiance; quite so?
(looks to FRANKLIN
Indeed, whereas you had long encouraged your son to be thoroughly English in
mind, manner, and allegiance, and to aspire toward station and stature within
the English system of patronage – in other words, had long encouraged for your
son exactly what you had sought for yourself – you now all but command your
son to respond to your public humiliation precisely as you had committed
yourself to respond to it, indeed such as, in your words, “to give it a little
revenge.”
MATHER
(smiles toward FRANKLIN)
“To give it a little revenge” – a most felicitous use of the inanimate pronoun,
sir. Most felicitous indeed. Dare we expound the ways?
(moves closer to FRANKLIN)
Coincident, sir, with your encouragement in your son of all things English, you
entertained notion he would one day take an English bride, specifically in the
person of one Polly Stevenson, daughter of your London landlady; correct, sir?
But what does this bastard progeny of yours do in the face of your
magnanimous aspirations toward him? He becomes enamored not of his father’s
dear Polly, but of his own dear Betsy! Even worse, he makes public
announcement of his betrothal before such time his father might conspire
against it. And your response to this untoward course of events, sir? Did you
not, in fact, but a fortnight previous to your son’s wedding, pack your trunks
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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and sail for home – this in juxtaposition, sir, to your having previously delayed
a return to Philadelphia several times over, on merest pretext?
(looks to the audience)
Did you perhaps give it a little revenge, sir?
(moves closer to Franklin)
When first it hatched of your imagination, sir, to take your son William’s only
son, William Temple, to Paris with you, for an interim likely to comprise
several years, did you solicit the approbation of the boy’s father on the matter?
Did you solicit the opinion of the boy’s stepmother on the matter? In fact, sir,
did you not, by artful stratagem, lure the boy from his stepmother, whilst the
boy’s father languished in a Connecticut jail, and issuing then no
announcement, steal him to France with you, thereby leaving the boy’s father
and mother bereft of all familial society with their only child?
(looks to the audience)
Did you perhaps give it a little revenge, sir?
(moves closer to FRANKLIN)
Eight years following, sir, in July of 1784, whilst you and Temple were yet
residing in France, your son William, estranged from you now these eight years,
having learned of your imminent departure for America, posted to you from
England an emissary of some length. I recount, sir, if I might, the first and last
verses of such, they representing, I beg your agreement, the whole.
(looks to his papers)
“Dear and Honoured Father: Ever since the termination of the unhappy contest
between Great Britain and America, I have been anxious to write to you, and to
endeavour to revive that affectionate intercourse and connexion which till the
commencement of the late troubles had been the pride and happiness of my
life.”
(looks to FRANKLIN).
The last verse, sir.
(looks to his papers)
“I shall therefore, if you are not likely to be soon in England, be happy to have
your approbation to wait on you at Paris. In the meantime I beg you to be
assured of my constant prayers for your health and happiness, and that I am, as
ever, your very dutiful and affectionate Son.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Do you recollect these verses, sir, chanted to you, so to say, in the cause of
reconciliation?
FRANKLIN
(in a low voice)
I do.
MATHER
And do you recollect your response, sir?
(FRANKLIN peers down at his hands, which are clasped)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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MATHER
Allow me, sir, to recount two excerpts from the reply posted by you, August 16,
1784, these representing, I beg your agreement, the whole of it.
(looks to his papers)
“Nothing has ever hurt me so much and affected me with such keen sensations
as to find myself deserted in my old age by my only son; and not only deserted,
but to find him taking up arms against me, in a cause wherein my good fame,
fortune, and life were all at stake.”
(looks to FRANKLIN.
The second excerpt.
(looks to his papers)
“Your situation was such that few would have censured your remaining neuter,
tho’ there are natural duties which precede political ones, and cannot be
extinguish’d by them.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
The emphasis given by me by way of intonation, sir, was in fact, you may
recall, your own, by way of underlining with your pen.
(looks to the audience)
Did you perhaps give it a little revenge, sir?
(FRANKLIN looks to the CLERK, who, slumped, is
holding his head in both hands. FRANKLIN looks to
WASHINGTON, who, slumped, is holding his head in both
hands.)
(MATHER looks to the audience)
MATHER
(looking to his papers)
“What can I say between you but that I wish you were reconciled, and that I
will love that side best that is most ready to forgive and oblige the other.”
ADAMS
(singing forth in a splendid baritone)
How spelleth thee, hypocrisy?
(ADAMS moves to the table on stage right, picks up a
sheaf of papers, and takes station in front of FRANKLIN,
who is downcast. MATHER sits down behind ADAMS’s
table.)
ADAMS
In the same moment your son extended toward you, sir, a most ardent overture
toward reconciliation, had he not lost his own ‘good fame,’ sir; his own
‘fortune?’ Had he not lost his very livelihood, sir, and all prospect? Had he not
lost his beloved wife, sir, and his only child – the latter to you, by way of your
theft of him? And yet, sir – or so it would appear – all you could see of your
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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son, as you peered through eyes narrowed by an aggrieved pride, was but an
insensible and disloyal son who had sacrificed everything of his own not out of
principle, not out of conviction, not out of duty, but simply out of an
inexplicable desire to deprive his father, for whom he had always held and
displayed the greatest respect and affection, of his ‘good fame, fortune, and
life.’ Is this not indeed the very pustule from which flowed the poison of your
hypocrisy, sir?
(FRANKLIN’s eyes remain cast downward. He is holding
his across his belly, as if to comfort himself)
ADAMS
Of all people, sir – you, who had himself rebelled from a controlling and
domineering elder, your brother James, sir – you could not see in your own son
the very likeness of yourself struggling to be his own man, aspiring toward his
own vision, sacrificing with manifest courage and conviction toward realizing
his own vision? It never occurred to you, sir – a polymath indeed of remarkable
grasp and insight – that independence of thought and action were as central and
necessary to your son, in the face of a controlling and overbearing father, as
they had been to you, in the face of a controlling and overbearing brother; in the
face of a controlling and overbearing Parliament; in the face of a controlling
and overbearing King? Is this what you would have us believe, sir?
(moves closer to FRANKLIN)
And even had your son’s offense constituted a slap upon the cheek of Lady
Justice herself, sir, as opposed to a pique of discomfiture upon a father’s pride,
was it an offense of such enormity it might never – never, sir – be acquitted?
Was it indeed greater in evil, sir, than Monsieur Brillon de Jouy’s betrayal of
his wife, your friend? Do you recollect the counsel you offered Madame
Brillon, sir, upon the occasion of her husband’s confession to bold couplings
with the governess of their daughters, in the very domicile they five shared?
(looks to his papers)
“If you exact a vengeance by punishing them” – them being inclusive of a host
of gossipers as well as Madam Brillon’s husband himself – “you restore them to
the state of equality that they had lost. But if you were to forgive them, without
any punishment, you would fix them in the low state into which they have
fallen, and from which they can never emerge, without true repentance and full
reparation. Follow then, my very dear and always amiable daughter, the good
resolution that you have so wisely taken, to continue to fulfill all your duties as
good mother, good wife, good friend, good neighbor, good Christian, etc.
(without forgetting to be a good daughter to your papa), and to neglect and
forget, if you can, the wrongs you may be suffering at present.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Do you recollect this noble sentiment, sir, and the good intention toward which
it was offered?
(FRANKLIN nods, head still slumped)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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ADAMS (cont.)
(moves closer to FRANKLIN)
Might you recollect also, sir, the original rendering of this indelible wisdom, as
included by you in one of your Almanacks of three decades previous?
(FRANKLIN remains silent, eye cast downward)
ADAMS
(looks to his papers)
“Doing an injury puts you below your enemy; revenging one makes you but
even with him; forgiving it sets you above him.”
(looks to Ben)
Now, sir, should we turn this very counsel – the one version or the other – halfcircle round, such as to direct it toward yourself, what might be your response?
(looks to the audience)
Or have you such immunity, sir, as to be able to abstain from practicing what
you preach and feel not a pang of shame for it?
(FRANKLIN shakes his head)
ADAMS
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Now, sir, just previous to the departure of you and your son William for
England in 1757, did the child to be left behind, your fair Sally, sir, then
thirteen years of age, confess to you an interest in learning the French
language?”
FRANKLIN
(nods)
She did
ADAMS
And did she thereupon persuade you, sir, by fervor of an earnest petition, into
granting license to engage in private lessons?
FRANKLIN
(looks to ADAMS)
She did
ADAMS
Now, sir, you were removing to England, not to France; hence, there would
seem little practical cause for Sally to correspond with you – or anyone to
become acquainted with you – in the French language. For what reason then,
sir, in your opinion, might Sally have made such a request of you?
FRANKLIN
For no greater reason than to better herself. The English language, she knew;
the French language, she did not.
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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ADAMS
To better herself in relation to what, sir?
FRANKLIN
My daughter was not unacquainted of the advantages to be credited to those
who become fluent in the language of Voltaire and Rabelais.
ADAMS
Ah, so your daughter’s request related more to a noble aspiration toward high
culture than to any inflammation of the spirit she might have been suffering
over prospect of an extended abandonment by her father. She was not, in other
words, sir, seeking means by which to earn an occasional nod from you during
a prolonged absence; nothing so tediously prosaic as that; correct, sir?
(FRANKLIN lowers his gaze; remains silent)
ADAMS (cont.)
Now, sir, a few weeks following commencement of your daughter’s lessons,
you received at your Craven Street apartment, London – whereat you, your son,
and your servants, Peter and King, had taken up residence – a letter writ entirely
in French in Sally’s hand; did you not?”
FRANKLIN
(looks to ADAMS)
I did.
ADAMS
And do you recollect your response, sir, as given not directly to your daughter,
but through her mother, such that you might swat two flies with one blow?
FRANKLIN
I recollect the favour sent, of its novelty; I do not specifically recollect my
response.
ADAMS
Allow me, sir, if I might, to jog a bit your memory.
(looks to his papers)
“I should have read Sally’s French letter with more pleasure but that I thought
the French rather too good to be all her own composing. I suppose her master
must have corrected it.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
One could hardly imagine a sharper reproof, sir, were one not privy to a second
such, delivered close upon the first. Might you have recollection of it?
(FRANKLIN remains silent)
ADAMS
In company with your letter to your wife, sir, you included “a French Pamela;”
and strong implication thereby that your linguistically equestrian daughter
should be able to take to saddle and, given the horsemanship demonstrated by
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her French letter, ride the French text into Richardson’s original English, and
thereupon deliver to you, by next packet, confirmation of Sally’s genius. Have
you recollection now, sir?
(FRANKLIN remains silent)
The adoring daughter desperately solicits a reassurance of approval and
affection from her oft-absented, oft-distracted father; the oft-absented, oftdistracted father responds with rebuke and humiliation.
(shakes his head)
One struggles to gather sufficient breath with which to replenish that expelled
by so heavy a shock.
(looks to his papers, then to FRANKLIN)
Sixteen years hence, sir, in the year 1773, your daughter, now twenty-nine, a
wife and mother, confessed to you, by letter delivered to your 7 Craven Street
chambers, a frustration over not being able to assist her mother in the economy
of your household to full measure of your urgings of her. Of course, Sally bore
this frustration not of any infirmity on her part, but wholly at cause of her
mother’s hostility toward any assistance regarding the care and maintenance of
her home, from any party. In response to this confession, sir, you issued a most
remarkable counsel. Have you a recollection of it?
FRANKLIN
I recollect an abiding inhospitality in my wife toward any form of meddling, as
she would name it, in any chamber or corner of domesticity that she considered
of pride to be her own. I do not recollect my daughter’s expression of
frustration in the face of such.
ADAMS
Allow me then, sir, to reacquaint you with the details.
(looks to his papers)
Your words, sir, to your daughter: “It will be of use to you if you get a habit of
keeping exact accounts; and it will be some satisfaction to me to see them.
Remember, for your encouragement in good economy, that whatever a child
saves of its parent’s money, will be its own another day. Study Poor Richard a
little, and you may find some benefit from his instructions.”
(appears as if stricken)
“Study Poor Richard a little,” sir? “You may find some benefit from his
instructions,’ sir? “What a child saves,” sir? This to a 29-year-old woman – a
wife and mother, sir – who might well have schooled Poor Richard to “some
benefit” in several of the practical arts, had ever the opportunity been allowed
her?
(shakes his head)
One struggles to regain one’s breath.
(sound of sniffling)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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(FRANKLIN turns in his chair. WASHINGTON, the
CLERK, and MATHER are dabbling their eyes with
handkerchiefs, one of these green, one blue, one red.)
(ADAMS returns to his table, where MATHER is blowing
his nose. ADAMS lifts a single sheet into hand, and
delivers this, while still holding, in his other hand, a sheaf
of other papers, to FRANKLIN.)
ADAMS
Is this item of any familiarity to you, sir?
FRANKLIN
(studies the sheet – both sides)
’Tis a letter by hand of my nephew, Benjamin Mecom, to my good wife.
ADAMS
Posted from St. John, Antigua, whilst Master Mecom was serving there at your
behest?
FRANKLIN
Correct.
ADAMS
His charge, sir?
FRANKLIN
I bid him to serve as overseer of a print shop owned by me and abandoned by
its previous overseer, Thomas Smith, by way of an untimely death.
ADAMS
Although not addressed to you, this letter was made available to you, by your
good wife, that you might be privy to its contents; am I correct, sir?”
FRANKLIN
My good wife and I withheld nothing one from the other.
ADAMS
(his tone bordering on sarcasm)
Most touching, sir.
(addresses the audience)
We are inspired.
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Now, in this letter, sir –
(takes the letter back from FRANKLIN)
your nephew, in the role of the journalist you would have him be, describes the
ravages of an exotic storm that had recently struck upon Antigua. Many an
innocent had perished. In his bold description, your nephew makes particular
mention the novel means by which notice of each new death was generally
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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communicated on the island – this being nine tolls of bell for a man; six tolls for
a woman; three tolls for a boy; and two tolls for a girl.
(shakes his head)
Now, sir, does anything regarding this ritual strike you as discordant or
unnatural? More to the point, sir, did anything strike you as such at the time you
first became privy to your nephew’s letter?
FRANKLIN
I recollect neither the ritual, as you call it, nor my impressions of it.
ADAMS
Most interesting.
(ADAMS returns Benny’s letter to the table and resumes
his station in front of FRANKLIN)
ADAMS
Now, sir, in light of your intimate knowledge of your nephew, might it have
been the case that in describing this novel ritual in some detail, that is, in
making more than mere mention of it, your nephew was, albeit by indirection,
demonstrating some degree of discomfort with an equation that implied an
intrinsic value to women and girls that was but two-thirds that implied to men
and boys?
FRANKLIN
I cannot know my nephew’s intention and therefore will not speculate on it.
ADAMS
Pray tell us then, sir, if you would, if this equation might be reminding to you of
any other such?
FRANKLIN
You refer, I have suspicion, to the Three-Fifth’s Compromise by which the
Constitutional Convention was saved from certain failure.”
ADAMS
I do indeed. As you will recall, sir, under terms of this so-called compromise,
each Negro in the several states was to be counted as three-fifths a person for
the purpose of apportioning representation in the lower chamber of the central
legislature; do you recall, sir?
FRANKLIN
I do.
ADAMS.
Now, sir, whilst yet you were mortal, did you ever hold it to mind that threefifths the worth of a White man was the proper valuation of a Black man”
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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FRANKLIN
I did, in general if not in particular. However, I corrected that erratum, as
previously noted in this chamber.
ADAMS
Privately corrected it, sir, long before publically corrected it; a fair statement,
sir?”
FRANKLIN
As you wish.
ADAMS
Whilst yet you were mortal, sir, did you ever hold it to mind that two-thirds the
worth of a man was the proper valuation of a woman?
FRANKLIN
I did not.
(The CLERK rises to his feet atop his perch)
CLERK
(beckoning to the audience with both hands)
Derisive laughter, kindly.
(audience laughs derisively)
(CLERK bows to the audience; sits)
ADAMS
I should like to ask you now, sir, if I might, to summon to memory a few
recollections concerning Miss Polly Stevenson, daughter of Margaret
Stevenson, your landlady during your two tenures of residence in London as
colonial agent. Over the fifteen years of your habitation with the Stevensons,
sir, you engaged in many an agreeable conversation with Miss Polly, this young
lady being in possession of, even at a tender age, a ready and curious mind; am
I correct?
FRANKLIN
You are.
ADAMS
And on occasions of separation one from the other, these discourses continued
in the form of letters writ one to the other; also correct?”
FRANKLIN
Correct.
ADAMS
Now, sir, during one such separation, this occurring in Miss Polly’s twenty-first
year, you wrote to admonish her against becoming too much interested in the
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philosophical arts, at the cost of becoming too little acquainted of the domestic.
I quote you, sir:
(looks to his papers)
“There is a prudent moderation to be used in studies of this kind. The
knowledge of nature may be ornamental, and it may be useful, but if to attain
eminence in that we neglect the knowledge and practice of essential duties, we
deserve reprehension. For there is no rank in natural knowledge of equal dignity
and importance with that of being a good parent, a good child, or good husband
or wife.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Do I speak your words as writ, good sir?
FRANKLIN
You do.
ADAMS
I repeat the last line:
(looks to his papers)
There is no rank in natural knowledge of equal dignity and importance with that
of being a good parent, a good child, or good husband or wife.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Did you subscribe to this sentiment yourself, sir, at the time you apprised Miss
Polly of it?
FRANKLIN
I advanced but what I myself embraced.
ADAMS
Very good, sir.
(bows toward FRANKLIN)
I apologize for being tiresome, sir. There is natural to some proceedings a
necessity toward tedium.
(looks to his papers; then looks to FRANKLIN)
Now, sir, by the time you returned home, five years hence, in the year 1762 to
be precise, your daughter Sally had blossomed unto a fullness of womanhood;
had she not?”
FRANKLIN
She had.
ADAMS
And the responsibility for guiding and measuring Sally’s maturation from bud
unto bloom had fallen to whom, sir?
FRANKLIN
My good wife.
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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ADAMS
Even so, should we not assume that the loving father, although absent these five
years, made contributions toward his daughter’s bloom that, if not essential to
it, were surely salutary toward it?
FRANKLIN
I did as would any loving father over the expanse of a separating sea. I urged
my daughter toward obedience in her relations with her mother, I encouraged
her in music and the domestic arts, and I sent her the occasional gift, including
books and references selected toward a proper education.
ADAMS
Splendid. Now, sir, during the five years you resided at the Craven Street home
of the widow Stevenson, in company with your son William, and your two
‘servants,’ sir, Peter and King, you established a quality of relationship toward
Polly, the widow’s daughter, that one might rightly characterize as paternal, as
recently evidenced by your paternal counsel toward her. A fair statement?
FRANKLIN
I have a’ready confessed as to this point.
ADAMS
Once again, I apologize, sir, for being so very tiresome. In fact, sir, did you not
come to regard Miss Polly, she having
(looks to his papers)
“a mind thirsty for knowledge and capable of receiving it”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
as more pridefully a daughter to you than ever had you regarded, or did you
regard,
(looks again to his papers)
“your dutiful and sweet-tempered” Sally, with “ready hands and feet to do and
go and come and get?”
FRANKLIN
(stiffens)
Your trick, sir, as should be obvious to all present, is to spread tar by way of a
cheap ink pretending as such.
ADAMS
In fact, sir, your dear Sally of “ready hands and feet to do and go and come and
get” was a sequential twin to your “dear wife,” was she not? And for the
unrelenting ache this disappointment caused in you, sir, you could not quite
forgive her, could you? Anymore than you could forgive the block from which
this plain chip sprung. And instead of taking responsibility for your part in the
matter – for having chosen a melding mate of expediency as against one of
compatibility – you faulted and punished her. Is this not the very truth of the
matter, sir?
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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(FRANKLIN shakes his head, eyes cast downward)
ADAMS
Nay, you say?
(looks to his to his papers; then to FRANKLIN)
When your dear Sally announced to you, sir, by way of favour carried to your
London outpost, of her own choice of a melding mate, the merchant Richard
Bache, what was the character of your response, sir? We have, in fact, only
recently touched upon it. Would a disinterested eye adjudge your response
celebratory, sir? If not, at least magnanimous? At least respectful? At least
civil?
(pauses)
In fact, sir, did you not manifest the gravest possible disapproval, firstly by way
of holding to a punishing silence; thereupon by way of hurling haughty insults
against your daughter’s dearly betrothed?
(looks to his to his papers.)
“Unless you can convince her friends” – friends, sir? – “of the probability of
your being able to maintain her properly, I hope you will not persist in a
proceeding that may be attended with ruinous consequences to you both.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
And did you not thereupon add salt to the wound, sir, by way of intimidating
your wife toward niggardliness regarding the nuptials?
(looks to his papers)
“At present I suppose you would agree with me” – suppose, sir? – “that we
cannot do more than fit her out handsomely in clothes and furniture.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
In the objects, in other words, sir, that most reflect the station of the father?
(looks to his papers)
I would only advise that you do not make an expensive feasting wedding, but
conduct every thing with frugality and economy.’”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
And did you not withhold yourself from standing with your daughter at her
wedding rite, sir, the most joyous occasion in her life? Indeed, sir, did you not
withhold yourself altogether?
(looks to his papers)
“It seems now as if I should stay here another winter.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
There being, of course, rites of higher privilege to attend to, sir?
(FRANKLIN slumps; ADAMS leans forward)
You absented yourself from the ceremony joining your only daughter to a
common merchant instead of to the prince you had imagined for her. Likewise,
you absented yourself from the ceremony joining your only son unto a planter’s
daughter instead of to the fairy princess you had imagined for him. What,
however, of the ceremony joining your dear Polly Stevenson to the notable
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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William Hewson, sir? Did you absent yourself also from this affair, also by way
of various “calamities and distresses” requiring your presence elsewhere? Or
did you, in fact, sir, accept not only Mrs. Stevenson’s invitation that you attend,
at cost of your usual summer travels away from London’s fevers, but also
Polly’s request that you stand with her in the stead of her long-deceased
father?”
(FRANKLIN remains silent).
ADAMS
One hesitates to imagine, sir, what species of paternal regard you might have
inflicted upon your dear Sally had you not been absented from her for eight of
her first twenty-four years.
(FRANKLIN remains silent)
(ADAMS and MATHER change places. MATHER is holding a sheaf of
papers)
MATHER
(looks to FRANKLIN, who is still slumped in his chair)
When subsequently your daughter gave birth to her first child, sir – not your
first grandson, one feels obliged to note, but indeed your first legitimate
grandson, christened Benjamin Franklin Bache, in your honor – you thereafter
referred to him, in subsequent letters to your wife, sir, as “your grandson,” not
my grandson, or our grandson, but your wife’s grandson; correct, sir? Yet,
when Polly Stevenson Hewson gave birth to her first child, you immediately
began referring to him as “my godson.”
(smiles)
A niggling point, you might argue. A little “cheap ink” pretending toward the
grandiosity of tar, you might protest. And perhaps you would be correct.
(looks to the audience)
Yet, is it not oft the case, sir, that a thing in the small can speak more loudly
even than the thing in the large, as indeed in the case of a tradesman wheeling a
cart filled with newsprint up a noonday street?
(leans toward FRANKLIN)
Indeed, sir, did you not, inch by inch, measure by measure, abandon your
daughter Sally, and her mother with her, just as you had previously abandoned
the woman, one Barbara Johndroe, sir, who had borne you an untimely son, just
as you one day would abandon the bastard child himself – in favor of
appropriating to yourself more agreeable, not to mention more complimentary,
surrogates?”
(looks to his papers)
Item, to Miss Polly Stevenson; I quote: “This is the best paper I can get at this
wretched inn, but it will convey what is entrusted to it as faithfully as the finest.
It will tell my Polly how much her friend is afflicted, that he must, perhaps
never again, see one for whom he has so sincere an affection, joined to so
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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perfect an esteem; whom he once flattered himself might become his own in the
tender relation of a child” –
(looks to FRANKLIN)
by way indeed of the marriage to William you had so ardently desired; correct,
sir? –
(continues looks to his papers)
“but can now entertain such pleasing hopes no more. Will it tell how much he is
afflicted? No, it cannot.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Item, to Miss Polly:
(looks to his papers)
“My dearest child. I will call you so; why should I not call you so, since I love
you with all the tenderness, all the fondness of a father?’
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Item, to Miss Polly:
(looks to his papers)
“I love you more than you can ever imagine.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Now, sir, labor as we might, we could discover, amongst the several hundreds
of papers and favours you so assiduously preserved unto a grateful posterity, no
such declarations regarding the daughter born to you and your dear wife save
one, it addressed not to your dear Sally, however, but to the man who would
find happiness in her company for two score and four years despite your best
efforts to prevent it.
(looks to his papers)
“I love my daughter perhaps as well as ever [sic] parent did a child, but I have
told you before that my estate is small, scarce a sufficiency for the support of
me and my wife, who are growing old and cannot now bustle for a living as we
have done.’”
FRANKLIN
(glaring at MATHER)
You take snippets from here, snippets from there, some from the same rag,
some from different such, and stitch of these a patchwork to your own comfort.
MATHER
(looks to the assembly.
Or might it be the case, Dr. Franklin, sir, that we bring to fore, by way of
connecting dot unto dot, a constellation heretofore gone unnoticed in a
firmament decorated of a blinding glitter?”
(looks to his papers)
“I am concerned that so much trouble should be given you by idle reports
concerning me. Be satisfied, my dear, that while I have my senses and God
vouchsafes me his protection, I shall do nothing unworthy the character of an
honest man and one that loves his family.”
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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(looks to FRANKLIN)
“I shall do nothing unworthy.” “One that loves his family.” Pray tell, sir, were
you privileged to be an observer upon these proceedings as opposed to its
subject, would you have, at this point, any cause to adjudge either the implicit
denial just reminded to you, or the explicit pledge just reminded to you, as
beyond all reproach?”
(FRANKLIN remains silent)
MATHER
(looks to the audience)
As should be apparent at this hour, sir, the content and direction of these
proceedings have in large measure been determined by the historical record as
preserved by no other than yourself. In fact, sir, you suffered to be preserved
many hundreds of letters either composed by you or addressed to you, not to
mention a myriad of other documents either spawned of or associated with your
various interests; am I correct as to this point, sir?”
FRANKLIN
You are.
MATHER
In fact, sir, you made liberal use of this very trove in your project to extend your
Autobiography – St. Sebastian save us all – unto thirteen volumes; did you not?
FRANKLIN
I consulted the contents of old boxes and chests, not to mention old memories,
which my mind caused, by some great mystery, to be restored to me.
MATHER
And did you happen to discover upon your rummagings through these old
boxes and chests, sir, the particular favour that provoked the denial and pledge
just reminded to you?
FRANKLIN
I did not make an accounting of each item.
MATHER
In fact, sir, you did not do so because you could not do so. In fact, sir, over the
five years of your first tenure in London as Pennsylvania agent, spanning from
June 1757 to August 1762, your dear Deborah sent you a veritable cornucopia
of favours, sometimes at the frequency of one per week, including the very one
presently at issue. Yet, of all those letters, sir, writ of considerable strain by a
woman unschooled in letters, you managed to summon sufficient care and
diligence as to preserve unto a grateful posterity not a single one – not a sheet,
sir – whereas, during this same interval, you were somehow able to summon
sufficient care and diligence as to preserve unto posterity the facile scribblings
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
I-1 Page 36
of a myriad other correspondents, their sheets having accumulated unto several
boxes and chests at the time of your return to the colonies.
FRANKLIN
My papers were subject to accident and loss over several decades, including a
decade of war. Preservation could no ways have been perfect.
MATHER
In fact, sir, those loving scratchings of your dear Country Joan, as you once
offhandedly referred to her, in holding no substance beyond the mundane, no
observation beyond the superficial, no cause for preservation beyond the
sentimental, were far more valuable as fuel for your London stove than as
treasure for your trunk; were they not, sir?
ADAMS
(rises from his table)
Are we close upon pinning the tail to the donkey, sir, or do we stray too far
from the ass?
(The CLERK rises atop his ivory perch)
CLERK
(beckoning toward the audience with both hands)
A few chortles, kindly, in likeness to –
(The CLERK chortles, then beckons toward the audience)
(The audience chortles)
(The CLERK bows; sits)
(MATHER looks to his papers, then to FRANKLIN)
MATHER
When you embarked on your first mission to London, sir, in the year 1757, you
expected – hence your wife and daughter, left behind, expected – that you
would be absented no greater than a few months; correct?
FRANKLIN
None had cause to think otherwise.
MATHER
As it turned out, however, you were separated from your family, they from you,
not five months, but five years, as has previously been established; correct?
FRANKLIN
We seem ever to be going round and round.
MATHER
We can only hope, sir, you shan’t become overly dizzied by it all.
(The CLERK rises atop his perch)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
I-1 Page 37
CLERK
(beckoning toward the audience with both hands)
Chortles, kindly.
(The audience chortles)
(The CLERK bows; sits)
MATHER
Now, sir, at fault for this unexpected interruption of domestic felicity was your
conscription into the cause of persuading the heirs of William Penn – Thomas
in particular – to pay their fair share of their namesake colony’s tax
requirements, especially as regards providing for a common defense; correct?
FRANKLIN
Correct.
MATHER
And if you were to fail in this cause, you were to attempt to influence
Parliament toward coercing by statute what could not be won by persuasion;
also correct?
FRANKLIN
Correct.
MATHER
Now, sir, by the end of September 1759, two years following your arrival in
London, you had brought your business to satisfaction, at least to the extent you
judged possible under present or foreseeable circumstances. In fact, although
the Penn brothers had not, as expected, proven sympathetic to your petition, the
King’s Council had, at least on that occasion; am I correct, sir?”
FRANKLIN
As you well know.
MATHER
In other words, sir, by the end of September 1759, the balance-pan of civic
responsibility had lightened in load to the effect of giving advantage to the
balance-pan of domestic responsibility; would you agree, sir?
FRANKLIN
One cannot always anticipate the ebb and flow of one’s responsibilities. Unlike
the natural tide, they can change hour to hour.
MATHER
But you being deeply vested in being a “good parent,” sir, and a “good
husband,” sir, and giving no advice you would not yourself keep, you instructed
your servant Peter to pack all your effects, to include, of course, all those letters
you had so assiduously preserved, such that you might embark at nearest
opportunity for home and hearth; am I correct, sir?
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
I-1 Page 38
(FRANKLIN remains silent)
MATHER
(turns to face the audience)
In fact, sir, you issued no such instruction, and did not return to home and
hearth until three years hence. And the reason you did not, sir? Was it because
all the packet ships on the Atlantic had become stricken by Neptunian
distempers?
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Or was it because you had, sir, over the previous two years, subordinated
certain interests to certain others, including the very one you would, not a year
hence, sir, admonish your dearly beloved Miss Polly against?
(looks to his papers)
“The knowledge of nature may be ornamental, and it may be useful, but if to
attain eminence in that we neglect the knowledge and practice of essential
duties, we deserve reprehension. For there is no rank in natural knowledge of
equal dignity and importance with that of being a good parent, a good child, or
good husband or wife.”
(leans toward FRANKLIN)
Return to a dull Country Joan? A middling Sally? When there were
philosophical adventures to be pursued? Royal appointments to be sought?
Land schemes to be conspired? Accolades to be accepted? Country cottages to
be visited? Great men to be interviewed? Coffee houses to be frequented?
Sojourns to be traveled?
(straightens)
O dear! Have we run our pen off the sheet, sir?
(MATHER and ADAMS change places)
ADAMS studies his papers a moment, then looks to
FRANKLIN)
On August, 24, 1762, sir, three years beyond completion of the business that
had compelled you to London, you sailed for Philadelphia, in company with
your slave Peter, and him alone, your son having remained behind such that he
might attend his nuptials, these to occur eleven days hence. Your other slave,
King, had previously severed his shackles that he might seek after the two-fifths
of his personhood long denied him; am I correct as to these points, sir?
(FRANKLIN remains silent)
Two years hence, sir, you again absented yourself from home and hearth, again
to serve the interests of the Pennsylvania Assembly in London, again from your
four-room outpost at 7 Craven Street. This tenure, however, instead of
incrementing to half a decade, incremented to a full decade plus one year; am I
correct, sir?
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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FRANKLIN
’Tis difficult not to construe inquiries to which the inquisitor must a’ready
know the answers with leaving a trail of crumbs toward a snare.
ADAMS
Or perhaps with giving voice to the two-fifths not yet heard from, sir?
(FRANKLIN averts his eyes to his right)
ADAMS
In sum then, sir, betwixt your two tenures in England, you were absent from
home and hearth for a total of sixteen years, am I correct?
(FRANKLIN remains silent)
ADAMS
As previously established, sir, upon your first removal to England, you took
your son William with you, he being then twenty-seven years of age, that he
might profit from experiences that could not be rivaled in the colonies.
(leans forward)
I do apologize, sir, for yet another tiresome circling around.
(straightens)
Given such magnanimity toward your son, sir, might we assume that, upon your
second removal to England, you showed similar magnanimity to your daughter,
Sally, she being at that time twenty-one years of age?
FRANKLIN
She was most desirous toward accompanying me, but her mother forbade it.
ADAMS
(addressing the audience)
Her mother forbade it, sir?
(The CLERK rises)
CLERK
(beckoning to the audience with both hands)
Hardy laughter, kindly
(The audience laughs)
(The CLERK bows; sits)
ADAMS
(looks to FRANKLIN)
In fact, sir, Sally not only was greatly desirous toward accompanying you, she
expressed sentiments to this effect in the most fervent of terms, did she not?
FRANKLIN
She did indeed.
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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ADAMS
And in fact, sir, you held it within your power to use your daughter’s desire in
league with your own, if not to overcome, certainly to overrule, your dutiful
Country Joan, did you not?
(FRANKLIN avoids eye contact)
ADAMS
Or would you have us believe, sir, that the greatest negotiator and treaty-maker
of his time, perhaps of all time, would not have been able to exercise
appropriate flatteries and stratagems to salubrious effect on so fierce an
opponent as his dear Country Joan?
(FRANKLIN remained silent)
ADAMS (cont.)
Let us try the shoe upon the other foot, sir. Had it been Miss Polly Stevenson
resolving to accompany you – in such case, to Philadelphia – and only her
mother’s reluctance to stop her, what would have been your resolve in the face
of such, sir, not to mention your stratagems?
(FRANKLIN remains silent)
ADAMS
Allow me to supply at least a hint as to the answer your silence pretends to deny
us. I do apologize for, once again, circling around.
(looks from his papers)
“Dear Polly, I love you more than you can imagine.” “My dearest child, I will
call you so; why should I not call you so, since I love you with all the
tenderness, all the fondness of a father?”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Indeed, sir, does not all fervor of worship derive from the like in the heart?
Would the author of the sentiments just repeated to you, sir, even hesitate to
grant his beloved a most fervently held wish should she confess it to him?
(FRANKLIN remains silent)
ADAMS
Now, sir, regarding the dearly beloved who had indeed advanced you a most
fervent wish – the one with “ready hands and feet to do and go and come and
get”– you left behind not simply herself, broken hearted, but also a little salt in
the wound? Do you recall such, sir? You had a’ready embarked the packet that
would return you to England. On November 8, 1764, it was yet stopped at
Reedy Island, awaiting a favoring tide. Reminded of a concern left unaddressed,
you scratched out a letter to Sally in haste, that you might post it before anchor
was weighed. The circumstances were these: Concerned that enemies you had
recently gained might attempt to impugn your reputation in your absence, by
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
I-1 Page 41
holding a glass up to your daughter’s every deed, you thought it prudential to
place Sally on notice concerning such. Do you recall such, sir?
(FRANKLIN remains silent)
ADAMS
(looks to his papers)
“They are enemies and very bitter ones, and you must expect their enmity will
extend in some degree to you, so that your slightest indiscretions will be
magnified into crimes, in order the more sensibly to wound and afflict me. It is
therefore necessary for you to be extremely circumspect in all your behavior
that no advantage may be given to their malevolence.”
(bows toward FRANKLIN)
It must have been terribly difficult for you, sir, to leave an innocent, not yet of a
maturity to be advantaged by foreign travels, to fend alone against the perils
you so gravely warn her against.
(turns to face the audience)
The wonder is, sir, that you did not have a change of mind, if not of heart, and
reverse your course.
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Of particular note among your admonitions to your broken-hearted but ever
dutiful daughter, sir is one in particular. I quote –
(looks to his papers)
“Go constantly to church, whoever preaches.”
(leans toward FRANKLIN)
Go constantly to church, sir? Whoever preaches, sir? Is this an instruction you
would have received, much less tolerated, in your twenty-second year? In any
year?
(straightens)
In fact, sir, your daughter had previously expressed to you her intention to end
all association with Christ’s Church, had she not? And her reason, sir, was it not
that the same rector to whom you obliquely refer in your admonishment to her,
the ‘whoever,’ had, on several recent occasions, in impugning your public
intentions and private relations, exhibited the same smallness of mind and
maliciousness of spirit that had served to turn you against dogmatic religion,
and at about the same age?
(leans toward FRANKLIN)
Dear obedient daughter, I entreat that you sacrifice your daily ease and your
Sunday conscience upon the cross of your father’s reputation – for without a
reputation in America, he can have no influence in England. Correct, sir?
(FRANKLIN slumps)
(ADAMS straightens, consults his papers, continues)
In the spring of 1779, sir, a few months following your appointment as Minister
Plenipotentiary to the French Court, you received a favour from your daughter,
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
I-1 Page 42
she now a wife and mother, and into her fourth decade, in which she refers to a
few items she implores that you send her. Her words, sir.
(looks to his papers)
“I have taken the liberty of sending a small list to you by Coll Crenis. Mister
Bache has sent bills to Jonathan Williams for many things for me and the
family, but I have had some other little wants since that time. The minister” –
(looks to FRANKLIN)
she refers here to Monsieur Gèrard, the French envoy in Philadelphia –
(looks again to his papers)
“The minister was kind enough to offer me some fine white flannel, and has
spared me eight yards. I wish to have it in my power to return as good to him,
which I beg you will enable me to do. I shall have great pride in wearing any
thing you send and showing it as my Father’s taste.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Now, sir, this request came to you in the wake of General Howe’s occupation of
Philadelphia and his subsequent withdrawal. The Bache home, your home, sir,
had been looted and heavily damaged. Shortages continued to worsen, prices to
soar. Your daughter writes –
(looks to his papers)
“It takes a fortune to feed a family in a very plain way; a pair of gloves 7
dollars, one yard of common gauze 24 dollars.”
(looks again to FRANKLIN)
But the British were finally gone, and life had begun to return to something akin
to normal. Indeed, spirits were elevated. Your daughter writes –
(looks to his papers)
“There never was so much dressing and pleasure going on, old friends meeting
again, the Whigs in high spirit, and strangers of distinction among us”–
(looks to FRANKLIN)
The latter being an allusion to General Washington. Do you recollect these
accounts from your dutiful daughter, sir?
(FRANKLIN nods)
Do you recollect your response, sir?
FRANKLIN
I hold vague notions of remonstration.
ADAMS
Allow me then, sir, to refresh your memory.
(looks to his papers)
“I was charmed with the account you give me of your industry, the table-cloths
of your own spinning, etc. but the latter part of the paragraph, that you had sent
for linen from France because weaving and flax were grown dear; alas, that
dissolved the charm; and your sending for long black pins, and lace, and
feathers! disgusted me” –
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
I-1 Page 43
(shows a look of disgust to the audience; then continues
looks to his papers)
– “as much as if you had put salt into my strawberries. The spinning, I see, is
laid aside, and you are to be dressed for the ball! You seem not to know, my
dear daughter, that of all the dear things in this world, idleness is the dearest,
except mischief.”
(ADAMS moves closer to FRANKLIN; leans forward)
ADAMS
Salt upon your strawberries, sir? Is the irony manifest here by a willful guile or
merely by a blind disregard? Indeed, sir, did your daughter have any
strawberries about her with which to manufacture a metaphor, much less to
debauch a sweet cake? Did she have any salt, sir, with which to disappoint the
pleasure of a Minister Plenipotentiary afflicted of gout begotten by indulgences
knowing no reproof? Here, sir, is Madam Gout – Madam Conscience? –
speaking to you by way of your own pen –
(looks to his papers)
“Instead of gaining an appetite for breakfast, by salutary exercise, you eat an
inordinate breakfast, four dishes of tea, with cream, and one or two buttered
toasts, with slices of hung beef, which I fancy are not things the most easily
digested. Immediately afterwards you sit down to write at your desk.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
And there we still have you, sir, at your desk, continuing your answer to your
daughter? You bring her news of her son Benny, whom, you announce, you had
packed off to Geneva to be made into, I quote you, sir –
(looks to his papers)
“a Presbyterian as well as a Republican.”
(looks again to FRANKLIN)
Following then a brief paragraph of grandfatherly gossip, of a sudden comes
lightning without benefit of a cloud.”
(looks again to his papers)
“When I began to read your account of the high prices of goods – a pair of
gloves 7 dollars, a yard of common gauze 24 dollars, and that it now required a
fortune to maintain a family in a very plain way – I expected you would
conclude with telling me that everybody as well as yourself was grown frugal
and industrious; and I could scarce believe my eyes in reading forward, that
there never was so much dressing and pleasure going on; and that you yourself
wanted black pens and feathers from France, to appear, I suppose in the
mode!… I therefore send all the articles you desire that are useful and necessary
and omit the rest, for as you say you should have great pride in wearing
anything I send and showing it as your father’s taste. I must avoid giving you an
opportunity of doing that with either lace or feathers. If you wear your cambric
ruffles as I do, and take care not to mend the holes, they will come in time to be
lace; and feathers, my girl, may be had in America from every cock’s tail.”
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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(turns and addresses the audience)
Including, must one presume, sir, your own?
(The CLERK rises)
CLERK
(beckons to the audience with both hands)
Hardy guffaws, kindly
(The audience guffaws)
(The CLERK bows; sits)
ADAMS
(looks to FRANKLIN)
I hold best for last, sir, as pudding after pork.
(consults his papers; looks again to FRANKLIN)
After scolding your “dear girl” in a manner most demeaning and disrespectful,
sir, misrepresenting utterly her desires and intentions, you end your excoriation
as follows:
(looks to his papers)
“Write oftener, my dear child, to your loving father.”
(addresses the audience; manifests incredulity)
Dear child? Loving father?
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Indeed, sir, would your dear child not have been better served to have thrown
herself upon a pyre than to risk any further rebukes from you?
(The CLERK rises)
CLERK
(beckoning to the audience with both hands)
A hardy thunder of foot-stomps, kindly.
(The audience stomps their feet)
(The CLERK bows; sits)
ADAMS
(looks to FRANKLIN)
You have confessed your breakfast, sir, by way of Madam Gout. Here now is
confession of your dinner, by way of your maître d’.
(looks to his papers)
“A joint of beef or veal or mutton, followed by fowl or game, with two sweets,
two vegetables, pastry, hors d’oeuvres, butter, pickles, radishes, two fruits in
winter, four in summer, two compotes, cheese, biscuits, bonbons, and ices twice
a week in summer and once in winter.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Whilst your strawberries were being ruined with salt, sir, your wine cellar was
amounting to 1040 bottles – all to be held in store, of course, until such time
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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you might ship them to Philadelphia, there to fete every patriot who had, by
virtue of unflagging Industry and Frugality, survived such deprivation and
misery that, although you escaped the teeth and claws of it, held ever constant
in mind; am I correct, sir?”
(FRANKLIN slumps)
ADAMS
(looks to his papers)
“If you wear your cambric ruffles as I do, and take care not to mend the holes,
they will come in time to be lace; and feathers, my girl, may be had in America
from every cock’s tail.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Now, sir, near the same time you were lashing your daughter with disapproval
and contempt, you posted a letter to your Dear-Polly-I love-you-more-than-youcan-imagine – she in England, you in France – in which you dangled before her
the possibility of her becoming adorned of a certain pair of diamond earrings, if
a certain lottery ticket, left behind by you, were it to turn up a winner. Do you
recollect such, sir?
(FRANKLIN hangs his head)
ADAMS
Diamond earrings for your dear Polly, she dwelling in the hum and bustle of
London, knowing no material deprivation or discomfiture soever, but nary a
feather nor a pin for your dear Sally, she dwelling in the squalor and
despondency of war-ravaged Philadelphia, knowing naught but deprivation and
discomfiture. Merely an irony of happenstance, sir, or have we here something
else altogether?
(FRANKLIN shakes his head)
ADAMS
In her response to your deeply wounding criticisms of her, sir, your daughter
presented to you, point by point, a gentle rebuttal; do you recollect at least the
history of this, sir?
(FRANKLIN nods)
ADAMS
In her rebuttal, sir, your daughter made plain to you what she confessed to
having failed to make plain previously; to wit, that she desired no
ornamentation beyond what would be fitting for the daughter of Benjamin
Franklin, Minister Plenipotentiary, to wear in respect for General Washington,
she being summoned unto the latter by formal invitation; and that there had
been no cessation of Industry and Frugality in the Bache household soever,
neither previous to Howe’s sack of the city nor after such; am I correct as to
these points, sir?
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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(FRANKLIN nods)
ADAMS
And your response, sir?
FRANKLIN
I sent her the remaining items she had requested.
ADAMS
But precisely to whom, sir, did you send these items – to the “do and go and
come and get” girl-child you could not, seemingly, other than regard your
daughter; or to the thirty-seven-year-old wife and mother your daughter in fact
was?
(looks to his papers)
“I am glad to hear that weaving work is so hard to get done. ’Tis a sign there is
much spinning. All the things you order will be sent, as you continue to be a
good girl, and spin and knit your family stockings.”
(looks hard toward FRANKLIN)
Indeed, sir, had I not previous knowledge of your daughter being into her thirtyeighth year; and being the mother of three thriving children; and being the
mistress of a boldly persevering household; and being a willing surrogate for
your material and social interests, I could come to no other conclusion, sir, from
the extraordinary depths of your condescension, than that you were addressing a
child of no greater than seven years.
(leans toward FRANKLIN)
Your daughter had no salt with which to smart the stripes you had inflicted
upon her, so you condescended to send her some. Here, my silly little Sally, rub
a little of this ready salve into those oozing stripes!
(straightens)
The bolt of homespun silk; do you recollect it, sir? Your daughter had sent it to
you, in company with some squirrel skins, so that you might present it, should
you approve the gesture, to the French Queen.
(FRANKLIN remains silent)
ADAMS (cont.)
Her intention was that it serve as a gift from you, but also – in her words –
(looks to his papers)
“to show what can be sent from America to the looms of France.” Correct,
sir?”
(Ben nods)
ADAMS
Indeed, despite a separation – an estrangement, sir? – spanning several years,
your daughter was well acquainted with your desire for a silk industry for
America; am I correct, sir?”
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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(Ben nods)
ADAMS
And to forestall any possibility of being overly familiar in this matter, your
daughter had gained the blessing of Monsieur Gèrard, the French envoy in
Philadelphia, regarding the propriety of making such a gift to the queen; correct,
sir?
(Ben nods)
ADAMS
And your response, sir, as regards your daughter’s overture and her etiquette
regarding it?
FRANKLIN
I have no specific recollection.
ADAMS
Your words, sir:
(looks to his papers)
You mention the silk being in a box with squirrel skins, but it is come to hand
without them or the box. Perhaps they were spoilt by the salt water and thrown
away; for the silk is much damaged and not at all fit to be presented as you
propose. Indeed I wonder how having yourself scarce shoes to your feet it
would come into your head to give clothes to a queen. I shall see if the stains
can be covered by dyeing it and make summer suits of it for myself, Temple
and Benny.
(addresses the audience in a mocking tone)
“Indeed I wonder how having yourself scarce shoes to your feet it would come
into your head to give clothes to a queen.”
(looks again to FRANKLIN)
How utterly extraordinary. I am one gasp short of swallowing my tongue.
(glares toward FRANKLIN)
Your daughter makes an extraordinary gesture toward pleasing you, toward
winning your approval, sir, by giving you unique means by which to
compliment your royal patrons, whilst in simultaneity furthering the interests of
the American farmer, all in full sympathy to her master’s idolatry of Industry
and Frugality, and you return the favour, sir, by sending your daughter yet
another pound of salt by which to inflame the stripes previously etched upon
her very soul.
(FRANKLIN holds his headin his hands)
ADAMS
(consults his papers; looks to FRANKLIN)
Close upon being chastened for her boldness toward advancing a silk industry
in America, sir, your daughter confessed to you her intention to christen her
next child, forthcoming, after a French sovereign – the assumption being that
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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you would be most pleased to have a grandchild bearing such a name, you
having become, by this date, all but a French sovereign yourself, your face
being – as reported by you – ‘as well-known as that of the moon.’ And as icing
upon that cake, your daughter invited you to choose a name most pleasing to
you. Her words, sir –
(ADAMS looks to his papers)
“The Queen has so many names, one of them will be honour enough. I must beg
you to say which will be the most pleasing to you.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Do you recollect this honorific, sir?
(FRANKLIN nods, still holding his head in his hands)
(ADAMS moves closer)
And do you recollect your response, sir?
(FRANKLIN remains silent)
ADAMS
Correct, sir! Nary a word, neither of acknowledgment nor of gratitude. And
when, thereafter, your daughter announced that a fifth grandchild had been
blessed unto you, a fourth grandson, and had been christened Louis, in honor of
your nascent nation’s patron saint, what then was your response, sir?
(FRANKLIN remains silent)
ADAMS
Correct, sir!
(leans forward)
No cat-o’-nine cuts deeper stripes than that bearing leathers of silence; am I
correct, sir?
(ADAMS pulls a cat-o’-nine-tails from under his robe and
retiring two paces, cocks the whip for striking. In the
moment of delivery, BARTHOLOMEW springs into harms
way and takes the full blow of the leathers. Uttering not a
sound, BARTHOLOMEW sinks to his knees. ADAMS
again cocks his whip)
(FRANKLIN lunges from his chair and scrambling on all
fours intrudes himself between ADAMS and
BARTHOLOMEW. He pulls BARTHOLOMEW’s colored
linen from under the poor man’s girding cord and begins to
minister to his bloodied face)
ADAMS
(tosses the whip aside and leans toward FRANKLIN)
And those stripes delivered upon your daughter, sir? Did you crawl upon your
hands and knees such as to minister to those?
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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(CLARENCE helps FRANKLIN to his feet. Together they
help BARTHOLOMEW into FRANKLIN’s chair.
FRANKLIN assumes BARTHOLOMEW’s former station.)
(The CLERK, having descended from his perch, stands at
the face of the crystalline bench until a chair magically
appears from within. The CLERK delivers the chair to
FRANKLIN. FRANKLIN bows and sits; the CLERK bows
and returns to his perch)
(ADAMS and MATHER have changed places. MATHER
looks to his papers, then to FRANKLIN)
In the spring of 1779, sir, as previously touched upon, you arranged for your
namesake grandson, Benny Bache, to be transported from Paris to Geneva,
there to attend a Pension school, such as to be raised, in your words, sir, ‘a
Presbyterian and a Republican;’ am I correct?
FRANKLIN
(shakes his head, eyes cast downward)
Trundle me to what fate you might, but torture me no farther.
MATHER
(moves closer to FRANKLIN)
Do less unto you, sir, than you have done unto others? Where would be the
justice, sir? Apply the sting of truth unto King George, but not unto Doctor
Franklin? Where would be the symmetry, sir?”
FRANKLIN
(shakes his head)
No more.
MATHER
(looks to the audience)
Pray tell, is the indomitable bon homme striking his colors? Can this possibly
be true?
FRANKLIN
(shakes his head; speaks in a low voice)
No more.
ADAMS
Or is our bon homme hoisting the Queen’s silk in their stead?
(The CLERK rises)
CLERK
(beckoning to the audience with both hands)
Titters, kindly.
(The audience titters)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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(The CLERK bows; sits)
FRANKLIN
Though the vessel must sink of trickery and treachery, its colors remain.
MATHER
They being of no cheap ink?
FRANKLIN
Dearly so.
MATHER
(looks to the audience)
Do you refer to the colors carried by you into this chamber, sir, or do you refer
to those you might carry from it?
FRANKLIN
I refer but figuratively.
MATHER
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Toward continuing these proceedings, sir?
(FRANKLIN nods)
Your grandson, sir, Benny Bache, whilst under your authority, remained at the
Geneva school from his tenth year into his fifteenth, more than four years in
sum – or one-third the lad’s total history on Earth. Do you recollect such, sir?”
(FRANKLIN nods)
MATHER
And during these four years, sir, Benny sent you many a plea for the comfort of
family ties, he being far removed from all such, did he not, sir?
(FRANKLIN shakes his head; remains silent)
MATHER
(looks to his papers)
“It has been even longer since I have had your news.” “If you have news of my
dear papa, and my dear mama, please let me know.” “I would like very much to
have your news, but I think that business is preventing you from writing to me.”
“I would also like to have news of my papa and mama.” “I did not have news
from you for such a long time, and I was very worried about you.” “I would
love to see my entire family and all my friends again, and have my brother in
Geneva with me.” “I would very much like it if you and my family would take a
trip to Geneva.” “I would very much like my brother to come to Geneva, as
well as the son of Mister Adams.”
(looks to FRANKLIN).
Please write. Please come. Please write. Please come. Please – please – please.
(moves closer and leans forward)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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Did you not hear your grandson’s desperate pleas, sir? Had you been struck
deaf by some errant blow to the head? To the heart? Or did your negligence
owe to some other cause, sir? Three thousand miles distant, sir, the boy’s father,
Richard, found his son’s pleas so viscerally wrenching that he was able to find
sufficient courage to attempt to shame you into visiting your despairing
grandson; have you recollection of this, sir?
(looks to his papers)
“It would give us pleasure to hear that you had found leisure enough to visit
him at Geneva, but I suspect your time has been more importantly employed;
[however,] the journey might conduce to your health, and be a means of
prolonging a life that is not only of so much consequence to us, but to the world
in general. Formerly you used to find a journey absolutely necessary for you,
every now and then; surely you must think it equally so now, unless the climate
of France should agree with you better than any other climate you have
heretofore lived in.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
Please go! Please visit! Please go! Please visit! Please! Please! Please! And
your response, sir?
(FRANKLIN shudders)
MATHER
(looks to his papers)
A lecture upon the necessities of Industry and Frugality. An exhortation to learn
all things, I quote you, “reputable and useful.” An exhortation to be ever dutiful
toward one’s masters. A sermon on the high virtue of affixing the date of
posting to one’s favours. An exhortation to improve one’s penmanship. And –
the pièce de résistance, sir? – no less than a cheap likeness of a visage, I quote
you, “as well-known as that of the moon” – sent in lieu of the article itself.
(FRANKLIN moans)
MATHER
And when, sir, you received notice that your grandson was to be awarded a
medallion for transforming Latin grapes into French wine, sir, did you place
yourself in attendance, at the Cathédrale St. Pierre, such as to illume your
dutiful grandson with the radiance of a proud parent? No? Did you send your
secretary, sir, Benny’s cousin, to stand in your stead? No? Did you arrange for
some other surrogacy, sir? A friend? A colleague? A thespian for hire? A man
off the street, sir? No?
(makes a dismissive gesture with the hand holding his
papers)
Aye, but your time was in fact “more importantly employed,” was it not, sir?
There was Madame Helvetius to bemuse in her parlour of bohemians. There
was Madame Brillon to console and counsel on matters of domestic distress.
There was a wine cellar to populate with notable vintages red and white. There
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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was Meister Mesmer to defrock of delusions toward divinity. There were
portrait appointments to keep. There was Temple to shape into a superficial
example of yourself. There was Voltaire to buss upon one pinked crinkle of
crepe and the other.
(shakes his head)
One becomes weighted of exhaustion just in the accounting of it all. If only
your grandson had known, sir, the fullness of your responsibilities elsewhere,
one would have to speculate, given the boy’s essential character, he would have
withheld any farther entreaties toward your attentions.
(FRANKLIN moans, shaking his head)
MATHER
Subsequent to Benny receiving his medallion, sir – this earned by an application
of industry and diligence that had to be out of the ordinary – you received
assessments from his landlady, the widow Cramer, to effect that her ward
appeared to have lapsed into indolence. He was taciturn, she reported; he
seemed to take no interest in the active pursuits of a boy his age; he even
showed no interest in having his allowance increased. “When reminded of his
Latin prize,” she wrote to you, “he replied coldly that it had been sheer luck.”
Have you recollection, sir?
(FRANKLIN slumps; remains silent)
MATHER
Have you any recollection, sir, of making a connexion betwixt your grandson
falling into indolence under weight of neglect, and your wife falling onto the
floor under weight of the same burden?
(makes a dismissive gesture with his clutch of papers)
Aye, but I forget. How silly of me. There is but one cause to indolence – hence,
but one remedy – quite so, sir? Indeed, naught was necessitated by the widow
Cramer’s report than for you to stand atop the pedestal of a common-law
sainthood and deliver unto this lapsing child a sermon of such flint as might
spark an eternal rectitude; quite so, sir?
(FRANKLIN moans)
MATHER
(looks to his papers)
“You see every where two sorts of people. One who are well dressed, live
comfortably in good houses, whose conversation is sensible and instructive, and
who are respected for their virtue. The other sort are poor, and dirty, and ragged
and ignorant, and vicious, and live in miserable cabins or garrets, on coarse
provisions, which they must work hard to obtain, or which if they are idle, they
must go without or starve. The first had a good education given them by their
friends, and they took pains when at school to improve their time and increase
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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their knowledge. The others either had no friend to pay for their schooling, and
so never were taught; or else” –
(raises his voice)
“when they were at school, they neglected their studies, were idle, and wicked,
and disobedient.”
(addresses the audience)
In short, my dear child, anyone in your circumstance who is indolent in his
habits is so by no other cause than being “wicked and disobedient” in his
character.
(speaking close to FRANKLIN’s ear)
Have you any notion, sir, as to the interest that might compound to paternal
neglect year over year? Have you notion, sir, as to the interest that might
compound to paternal neglect generation over generation?”
(shifts to FRANKLIN’s other ear)
“A little neglect may breed great mischief.” Are these words familiar to you,
sir?
(shifts to FRANKLIN’s other ear)
During the four and one-half years your grandson was resident at Geneva, from
his tenth year into his fifteenth, sir, did you pay him the honor of a visit, sir –
even once?
(FRANKLIN moans: shakes his head)
MATHER
(moves to face FRANKLIN; leans forward)
Did you arrange for Temple, Benny’s cousin, to pay your grandson the honor of
a visit, sir – even once?
(FRANKLIN moans)
MATHER
Did you arrange for Benny to pay you a visit at Passy, sir – even once?”
(FRANKLIN moans)
MATHER
Not at Christmastide, sir? Nor at Easter? Nor on the boy’s birth anniversary?
The eleventh such? The twelfth? The thirteenth? The fourteenth? Not one?
(FRANKLIN moans, shaking his head)
MATHER
(looks to his papers)
“There is no rank in natural knowledge of equal dignity and importance with
that of being a good parent.
(thrusts his face close to FRANKLIN’s)
“No rank in natural knowledge,” sir. “Of equal dignity and importance,” sir.
“With that of being a good parent” – sir.
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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(FRANKLIN weeps. BARTHOLOMEW and CLARENCE
each places a hand on one of FRANKLIN’s shoulders.
BARTHOLOMEW offers FRANKLIN his bloody linen.
FRANKLIN dabs his eyes with it. BARTHOLOMEW
gestures for FRANKLIN to keep it)
MATHER
(looks to his papers)
In a letter to you dated June 4, 1769, sir, this being in the fifth year of your
second tenure as Pennsylvania agent in London, you were apprised that an
indisposition suffered by your wife the previous winter had been far graver in
both injury and consequence than heretofore you had allowed yourself to
conceive. Do you recollect such, sir?”
(FRANKLIN nods)
MATHER
I quote Dr. Bond’s words on the matter, sir.
(looks to his papers)
“Your good Mrs. Franklin was affected with a partial palsy in the tongue and a
sudden loss of memory, which alarmed us much, but she soon recovered from
them, though her constitution in general appears impaired. These are bad
symptoms in advance life and augur danger of further injury on the nervous
system.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
“Her constitution in general appears impaired.” “Bad symptoms in advance life
augur danger of further injury on the nervous system.”
(leans closer)
And your response, sir, to these ominous indications?
FRANKLIN
I sought the opinion of Sir John.
(straightens)
You refer to Dr. Pringle, personal physician to the queen; am I correct?
FRANKLIN
I sought his opinion at earliest opportunity, and being delivered of it, forwarded
it to my wife at soonest opportunity.
MATHER
Toward what purpose? Was Dr. Bond so unpracticed in the medical arts as to
require intervention by a counterpart who could have no opportunity to form an
opinion on evidence of his own gathering? Indeed, sir, for what good reason
might you forward an untimely and likely redundant opinion to your stricken
and imperiled wife in the stead of your beloved self?
(leans closer)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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In truth, sir, in the moment you learned of the gravity of your wife’s
indisposition, were you not much beguiled by two prospects of equal
excitement – the one being the Ohio land purchase you had been scheming in
league with your son William; the other being a government appointment
befitting your much-accumulated merit? Hence, sir, were you to remove to
Philadelphia at this critical time, to serve as your wife’s friend and nurse, would
you not abandon all hope of consummating the Ohio land purchase; all hope of
securing the appointment you so fervently relished?”
(leans closer)
Or do we attempt to weave unto whole cloth, sir, too much by way of warp, too
little by way of weft?
(FRANKLIN remains silent)
MATHER
Might indeed it have been the case, sir, that as once you had been too
preoccupied with practical matters to ensure that a fragile boy in your care, your
son Frankie, sir, be inoculated against the pox, you were now too preoccupied
with practical matters to deliver unto a sinking wife the comfort she not only
deserved from you, but that represented your solemn duty toward her?”
(FRANKLIN groans; shakes his head)
MATHER
On November 20th of this same year, sir, your wife, having recently received
Sir John’s opinion, commenced a letter that would require of her a week’s
struggle to complete, such were the impediments she now had to overcome in
order to greet you by the only means available to her. She began her favour, sir,
by graciously acknowledging Sir John’s opinion. She thereupon attempted to
explain to you, in pieces and fragments of linguistic torture that seemed to
writhe like a sundered worm, her own opinion as to the nature and cause of her
indisposition: Close upon the incidence of her affliction, she explained, she had
been burdened with the care of two sick women – one being her cousin Debby,
the other being the wife of your nephew Benny. These burdens had themselves
come close upon her having received from you yet another postponement as
regards your return home. Her own words, sir:
(looks to his papers)
“This added to my distress at your staying so much longer that I lost all my
resolution. Both Sally and myself live so very lonely that I got in so very low a
strait and got into so unhappy a way that I could not sleep a long time.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
A few lines hence, sir, your wife circled back to trod the same ground, such was
her desperation to employ to effect a facility, never strong in her, that seemed
now all but lost to her.
(looks to his papers)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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“I am in hopes I shall get better again to see you. I often tell friends I was not
sick. I was only unable to bear any more and so I fell down and could not get
up. Indeed, it was not any sickness but too much disquiet of mind, but I had
taken up a resolution never to make any complaint to you or give you any
distress.”
(looks to FRANKLIN)
“Too much disquiet of mind.” “I was only unable to bear any more.” “And so I
fell down and could not get up.” And your response, sir?
(FRANKLIN hangs his head)
MATHER
None! Not a line! Not a word! Not a jot!
(FRANKLIN weeps)
MATHER
Your wife manages by heroic effort, sir, to squeeze upon paper the few drops of
hope yet wetting the pulp of her soul, that you might bear witness and take pity,
and you respond, sir, with not a line – not a line of comfort, not a line of
solicitude, not a line even of curiosity.
(looks to his papers).
“My distress at your staying so much longer that I lost all my resolution.” “I
was unable to bear any more and so I fell down and could not get up.”
(leans forward).
“‘Where was the manly hand, sir, that would lift this woman from the depths of
despair? Where was the manly heart, sir, that would bring this woman the only
happiness ever she hoped after? Where was the “good husband,” sir, that would
meet duty with duty, loyalty with loyalty, grace with grace?
(thrusts his face close to FRANKLIN’s)
Where, sir?
(stage goes dark momentarily)
(ADAMS joins MATHER in front of FRANKLIN)
(WASHINGTON steals away from his table to change into
SCOURGER garb)
(stage remains dark; spot light illuminates FRANKLIN,
CLARENCE, BARTHOLOMEW, MATHER and ADAMS
as a group)
(when ready, SCOURGER and DEBORAH position
themselves in front of the crystalline bench)
ADAMS
(looking to his papers)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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“It wants but a very few days of six years since you left home and then you
thought it would be but seven months. My Dear child I hope you will not stay
longer than this fall.”
MATHER
(looking to his papers)
“You ask me when I think I shall return? I purpose it firmly after one winter
more here.’”
ADAMS
“A little girl came to see him [Kingbird], so after some time he showed her your
picture and said papa, and then held up his finger and showed to the profile and
said is more papa, and seemed pleased for her to look at it. I long for you to see
him.”
MATHER
“Your Accounts of your Kingbird please me exceedingly. I hope soon to see
him and you.”
ADAMS
“I have not had a letter as yet. I have not allowed myself the liberty to make
complaints to you of any sort, but this has been the most melancholy winter that
I ever knew in my memory.’”
MATHER
“I must, I find, stay another winter here absent from you and my family, but
positively nothing shall prevent, God willing, my returning in the spring.”
ADAMS
“I am very incapable of doing any business as I am not able to walk about and
my memory is so poorly and sometimes worse than others.”
MATHER
“Your affectionate husband hopes to arrive at home next May. Sends
affectionate regards and love to the children.”
ADAMS
“You may see what blunders by the scratching out that I am not capable of
writing, so I shall only say that I find myself growing very feeble very fast. I
leave Mister Bache and Sally to write as I am very unfit to do.”
MATHER
“I hoped to have been on the sea in my return by this time, but find I must stay
a few weeks longer, perhaps for the summer ships.”
ADAMS
“I was in hopes that would inform when you intend to return again to your own
home. I can’t write to you, as I am so very unfit to express myself, and not able
to do as I used, for that illness I had was a palsy, although I don’t shake. My
memory fails me; I can’t express myself as I used to do.”
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
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MATHER
“I have had no line from you by several late opportunities: I flatter myself it is
owing not to indisposition, but to the opinion of my having left England, which
indeed I hope soon to do.”
ADAMS
“I must submit and endeavor to submit to what I am to bear. Sally will write. I
can’t write any more.”
MATHER
“It is now nine long months since I received a line from my dear Debby. I have
supposed it owing to your continual expectation of my return.”
(MATHER and ADAMS straighten; turn with military
precision, one clockwise, the other counterclockwise; and
look to the audience)
MATHER and ADAMS
(speaking simultaneously)
“There is no rank in natural knowledge of equal dignity and importance with
that of being a good parent, a good child, or good husband.”
(FRANKLIN moans, holding his head in his hands)
ADAMS
Is not the lash delivered of neglect, sir, equal, in all accounts, to that delivered
of malice? And even greater, sir, on the occasion of neglect in the extremity?
(ADAMS and MATHER turn to face the audience)
(a flash; simultaneously the stage lights come on)
(The SCOURGER is standing in front of the crystalline
bench, dressed entirely in black, including a black hood.
DEBORAH, as an old woman, is kneeling before him; her
hands are clasped in supplication.)
(The SCOURGER raises a cat-o’-nine and strikes the
supplicating woman.)
ADAMS
In the fall!
DEBORAH
I must submit, and endeavor to submit, to what I am to
bear.
(The SCOURGER strikes another blow)
MATHER
In the spring!
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
I-1 Page 59
DEBORAH
I must submit, and endeavor to submit, to what I am to
bear.
FRANKLIN
(springs from his chair)
Stop! Stop!
(The SCOURGER raises the cat-o’-nine)
FRANKLIN
(runs toward the terrible scene, strikes an invisible surface,
and falls backward onto the floor; he crawls on his hands
and knees to the invisible wall, rises on his knees, and
holds his clasped hands toward the SCOURGER)
Stop! Please! No more! I beg you!
(The SCOURGER strikes another blow)
(FRANKLIN cries out; shudders)
ADAMS
(looks to his papers)
“I did write by Capt. Faulkner to you but he is gone down and when I read it
over I did not like it and so if this don’t send it I shant like it as I don’t send you
any news nor I don’t go abroad.”
ADAMS (cont.)
(hangs his head, then looks again to his papers)
“You may see what blunders by the scratching out that I am not capable of
writing, so I shall only say that I find myself growing very feeble very fast.”
(FRANKLIN weeps; his head is slumped forward)
MATHER
(looking to FRANKLIN)
Would you have opinion, good sir, as to how your grievously afflicted wife
might have caused in you a keener awareness of the degree to which her
facilities of mind and body were failing than by way of the lines just read you?
(The SCOURGER strikes another blow)
(FRANKLIN cries out; weeps)
ADAMS
In the fall!
FRANKLIN
(holding clasped hands toward the SCOURGER)
“Stop! Stop! Have mercy! Please!”
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
I-1 Page 60
MATHER
“Sally will write. I can’t write any more.”
ADAMS
I cannot write any more. I cannot hope any more. I cannot endure any more. I
cannot bear any more.
MATHER
I cannot endeavor to bear any more.
ADAMS
(leans closer to FRANKLIN; speaks in a low voice)
Come home.
MATHER
In the spring!
(The SCOURGER delivers another blow)
ADAMS
(speaks in a low voice)
Come home.
MATHER
In the fall!
(The SCOURGER delivers another blow)
(DEBORAH crumples to the floor, convulses, stills)
(a single toll of bell off staGe is followed by five more in
measured succession)
ADAMS
(looking to FRANKLIN)
I quote, sir, from a letter to you dated December 24, 1774.
(looking to his papers)
“Her death was no more than might be reasonably expected after the paralytic
stroke she received some time ago, which greatly affected her memory and
understanding. She told me when I took leave of her, on my removal to Amboy,
that she never expected to see you unless you returned this winter, for that she
was sure she should not live till next summer. I heartily wish you had happened
to have come over in the fall, as I think her disappointment in that respect
preyed a good deal on her spirits.”
(off-stage)
In the spring!
In the fall!
In the spring!
In the fall!
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
I-1 Page 61
FRANKLIN
(bows his head; weeps; speaks in low voice)
I am so very sorry.
(weeps)
So very sorry.
(The stage goes dark except for a spotlight on FRANKLIN.
DEBORAH and the SCOURGER leave the stage.
DEBORAH changes costume for the MADONNA role;
SCOURGER changes costume for the SARG role)
(Spotlight reveals ADAMS standing at his desk stage-right)
ADAMS
(in basso voice)
“What we have above what we can use is not properly ours, though we possess
it.” Benjamin Franklin, 1750.
(ADAMS spotlight goes dark; in the same instant, a
spotlight reveals MATHER standing at his table, stage-left)
MATHER
(in baritone voice)
“An enormous proportion of property vested in a few individuals is dangerous
to the rights, and destructive of the common happiness, of mankind.” Benjamin
Franklin, 1776.
(MATHER spotlight goes dark; in the same instant, a
spotlight reveals the CLERK standing on his perch)
CLERK
(in falsetto voice)
“When, by virtue of the first laws, part of the society accumulated wealth and
grew powerful, they enacted other [laws] more severe [that] would protect their
property at the expense of humanity. This was abusing their powers and
commencing a tyranny.” Benjamin Franklin, 1785.
(CLERK spotlight goes dark)
(To strains of the ethereal music in Act I, Scene 1, the three
colored lights atop the crystalline bench merge into a single
white light. The white light descends to where FRANKLIN
(illumed by spotlight) is kneeling with his head bowed. A
flash and a glowing MADONNA, gowned entirely in
white, is standing in front of. FRANKLIN)
MADONNA
What forgiveness in the seeking of it, good sir, is not ever the gaining of it?
(FRANKLIN weeps)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
I-1 Page 62
MADONNA
Though the hour is late, good sir, yet still there is time.
(rests her right hand on FRANKLIN’s head)
Your tears, good sir, are your salvation.
(a flash)
BLACKOUT
END OF ACT I
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-1 Page 63
ACT II
SCENE 1
(stage is dark)
(To a burst of light, FRANKLIN appears on Milk Street:
stage-right, toward the rear. He is holding a walking stick.
A sound of thunder, off stage, is followed by a sound of
falling rain. FRANKLIN demonstrably relishes the
experience of feeling rain (being alive). He holds his arms
out; smiles and nods; does a little dance.)
(FRANKLIN taps his way toward stage-front to sounds of
traffic. He demonstrably marvels at what he is seeing. He
walks parallel to stage-front, to the corner of Washington
and School Streets. A panhandler (SARG) is leaning
against a nearby lamp post, holding a cup. He is wearing a
baseball cap and a drab army jacket. An oversized Purple
Heart is dangling on a purple ribbon from his neck. A pair
of crutches is laying on the pavement to his right.)
(FRANKLIN sits down on a bench near the panhandler and
claims a discarded newspaper from a facing bench. As
FRANKLIN progresses through the newspaper, he
increasingly utters and demonstrates shock and dismay.)
O my goodness! O my gosh! O my goodness!
(Finally, FRANKLIN can read no more. He holds his head
in both hands)
SARG
(rises from the pavement and approaches FRANKLIN)
This is my corner, shit breath. Take a hike.
(FRANKLIN looks up; SARG is staring down at him)
FRANKLIN
(shifts from peering at SARG to peering at the two crutches
still lying on the pavement near the street lamp)
I believe, sir, that in your rush to judgment concerning my intentions, you have
inadvertently compromised your credibility, and thereby, by consequence, your
immediate prospects in the commerce of pity.
SARG
(shows perplexity)
Huh?
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-1 Page 64
FRANKLIN
(nods toward the crutches)
Your crutches, sir. You have neglected to take them up, apparently by accident
of their not being tethered to your person in the manner of your medallion.
(SARG looks to his crutches; strikes his forehead with the
side of a fist; hangs his head)
FRANKLIN
(points to the facing bench with his cane)
I suggest you sit yourself, sir, before you should injure your reputation any farther.
(SARG, still holding his plastic cup, sits down on the
opposing bench)
FRANKLIN
Your name, sir, if I may learn it.
(SARG stares at FRANKLIN, then holds out a hand.
FRANKLIN grasps it)
Sergeant Kortright, 75th Infantry, Company E. My friends call me Sarg.
FRANKLIN
(shaking SARG’s hand)
Colonel Franklin, First Pennsylvania Associators. You may call me Ben.
SARG
(shows surprise)
You a military man?
FRANKLIN
I am indeed, sir, but not in the sense you imply. Take, for example, the matter
of this corner. You discovered me sitting on this bench and judged me, on the
basis of my appearance, a rival to your interests, and your reflex was to accost
me with a threat of physical injury. But to what end, sir? Were I a military man
in the sense of your inquiry, would I not meet your threat with one yet more
dire, and on and on we should thereupon advance, until such time we were alike
too deep into pride to withdraw, the only course being to come to blows, unto
considerable ruin to one or both? And is this not, sir, the very means by which
opposing parties, dominated by our gender, have attempted to settle their
opposing interests from the time of Cain and Abel? But where, sir, might we
find a body of evidence sufficient to advance this means of resolution as worth
anything close to the terrible cost invariably owing to it?”
SARG
(sneezes; draws a wrist across his mustache, then wipes his
wrist on his jeans)
You one of them nut cases they dump on the streets nowadays?
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-1 Page 65
FRANKLIN
I ask you, good sir, to hear me out, if I might, before you should deliver any
farther insults.
(Sarg shrugs)
FRANKLIN
The full record of human history, sir, would seem to advance the theory that if
conflicts are to be resolved to any lasting good, they must be resolved, not by
superior force of arms, but by superior exercise of wits. There is, I submit, sir,
no such article as a benign violence, and therefore no lasting resolution to be
won of it, nor any true beneficence. In fact, you have witnessed the verity of
this fact, first hand, by way of your experience in war, have you not?
(SARG averts his eyes; he nods)
FRANKLIN
The medallion on your chest, sir. Might that article imply that you suffered an
injury, most grievous, during the course of your service?
SARG looks down at the Purple Heart resting on his chest;
he nods)
FRANKLIN
You have beside you in the moment, sir, a doubting Thomas, in consequence to
his having witnessed many a fraud in a previous life. Allow him to witness the
scar of your wounding, sir, that he might believe.
(SARG glowers; shows agitation)
Does your delay account to your scar affecting too intimate a location to allow
public exhibition, sir, or to some other cause?
SARG
(springs to his feet and begins wagging a finger at
FRANKLIN, who shows no fear)
You callin’ me a liar, asshole? Who the fuck you think you are anyway? You
think you’re better ‘n me? Eh? Where the fuck are your scars asshole? Show me
‘em! Eh? You first, asshole)
FRANKLIN
(shakes his head with grave disapproval)
You are, once again, sir, I feel obliged to make you aware, standing erect absent
the service of your crutches.
(SARG stares at FRANKLIN; looks to his crutches; then
throws his cup to the pavement, scattering a few coins, and
mutters to himself. He throws his baseball cap onto the
pavement and, stomping on it, mutters to himself. He then
sits down on the opposing bench and, eyes downcast,
begins to weep)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-1 Page 66
(Sound of a police siren)
FRANKLIN
The fault lies not with incompetence, sir, but with the falsehood you embrace.
Who amongst mortals can calculate his every action, and deny his every
passion, such as to protect his every prevarication? I doubt the angels
themselves, one or two of these in particular, their names here to go
unmentioned, would be up to the task.
(pauses)
Have you a home, sir?
(SARG shakes his head)
Had you one upon a time?
SARG
(wipes his nose on his sleeve)
Used t’ live in a triple-decker over in Dorchester – ‘bout a hundert years ago –
me and my crazy mother and my even crazier sister. Some big-shot developer
come along and dumped us on the street. Just like that. Here t’day, gone
t’morrow, good luck t’ ya. He’s in the White House now. Figures, don’t it.
FRANKLIN
Your mother, sir?
SARG
Dead ‘r a doornail. Got hit by a cab.
FRANKLIN
O I’m so very sorry.
SARG
She was always getting’ chased by giant spiders.
FRANKLIN
I’m so sorry. And your sister?
SARG
She run off to New York – thank the good Lord – to get herself into show biz.
(shakes his head)
She’d ’bout driven me crazy. Every night, the same ol’ song, over and over – if
I had a hammer, if I had a hammer, if I had a hammer. My mother getting
banged in one room, my sister yodelin’ in the other. I never hear’d from ’er ever
again, thank the good Lord.
(shakes his head)
Over and over. Jesus and Mary.
FRANKLIN
(ponders a moment)
Where do you find shelter, sir, when you require it?
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-1 Page 67
SARG
(shrugs)
Wherever. Don’t matter none – until it gets real cold.
FRANKLIN
Have you desire, sir, toward having a shelter of your own one day, however
modest it should be?
SARG
(shakes his head)
They’d jus’ take it again. Here’s the door. Good luck t’ ya.
FRANKLIN
Might there be a flower shop in the vicinity, sir?
SARG
(shows perplexity, looks overtop Ben)
Jus’ up the street.
FRANKLIN
(rises slowly, leveraging his weight with his cane)
“Which side, sir?”
(SARG gestures with his head toward the further side)
FRANKLIN
Collect your coins, sir, but leave your crutches. You will have no farther need
of the latter.
BLACKOUT
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-2 Page 68
ACT II
SCENE 2
(Penn Station. FRANKLIN is looking up at the
Departures marquee. A disembodied voice is
making announcements in a monotone [“now
loading on Track 12,” etc.] To stage-right, rearward
a flower cart, labeled “The Petal Pusher,” shows
bouquets of flowers as well as balloons. Matching
signs stage-left, forward, read Men and Women)
(ALICE enters from stage-left as if from the Women’s
room. She is wearing a too-big blue sweater; a white skirt
fringed with ruffles; clunky black shoes. Her face is overly
rouged. She is wearing a flaxen pigtail at each ear, each one
bound by a bright-green ribbon. She is holding a multicolored carpetbag)
(A monotonic voice announces that the Washington
Express will be forty-five minutes late)
ALICE
(beginning to sing)
If I had a hammer
I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening
All over this land…
(FRANKLIN turns to face ALICE)
ALICE
(showing exuberance))
I'd hammer out danger
I'd hammer out a warning
I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land…
(The stage lights dim. A spotlight illumes ALICE. A
separate spot light illumes SARG standing opposite
ALICE, toward stage-front)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-2 Page 69
SARG
Every night, the same ol’ song, over
and over – if I had a hammer, if I
had a hammer, if I had a hammer.
My mother getting banged in one
room, my sister yodelin’ in the
other. I never hear’d from ’er ever
again, thank the good Lord.
ALICE
If I had a bell
I'd ring it in the morning
I'd ring it in the evening
All over this land…
.
(The spot light on SARG goes dark. SARG leaves the
stage. The stage lights return to former level. OFFICER1
and OFFICER2 approach ALICE.)
ALICE
(increasing her tempo)
I'd ring out danger
I'd ring out a warning
I'd ring out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land…
(OFFICER1 and OFFICER2 seize ALICE, one at each arm.
ALICE struggles to free herself)
ALICE
No! Don’t make me! No! No! Don’t make me!
(throws her head back; screams)
Stop! You’re hurting me! You’re hurting me! Make ’im stop! Make ’im stop!
Where are you? Where? Where?
(ALICE slumps; weeps)
FRANKLIN
(urgently tapping his way toward ALICE)
Excuse me! Excuse me! One moment, please, one moment!
(arrives at the scene and peers sternly at the two officers)
If you gentlemen would forbear for one moment, please, one moment, kindly, I
will attempt to bring a peaceable conclusion unto this unhappy affair.
(looks to OFFICER1)
Sir?
(OFFICER1
(takes notice of FRANKLIN’s manner of dress)
You with Public Affairs?
FRANKLIN
I am as I appear, sir, and no greater.
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-2 Page 70
OFFICER1
She knows the rules.
(ALICE whimpers)
FRANKLIN
There is knowing, sir, and there is knowing. Bear with me, kindly.
OFFICER1
(looks to ALICE, still whimpering; then to his watch)
One minute.
FRANKLIN
Thank you, sir.
(looks to ALICE; lays a hand on one shoulder)
’Tis intermission, madam diva. Rest here, if you would be so kind, and I will
return momentarily.
(FRANKLIN taps his way urgently to the Petal Pusher cart.
There is an attendant or not)
ALICE
(begins to sing again)
If I had a hammer
I'd hammer in the morning
(cont. as necessary)
(FRANKLIN selects a bouquet of seven daisies and taps
his way urgently to where ALICE is singing; he offers the
flowers to ALICE)
(ALICE stops singing and accepts OFFICER2’s gesture to
hold her bag. ALICE accepts the bouquet from
FRANKLIN and cradles it against her breast as a mother
might a newborn child)
FRANKLIN
(takes a step backward and begins tapping the floor with his
cane)
Bravo! Bravo!
(sound of thunderous applause)
(ALICE smiles and curtsies toward the audience; the
applause continues)
(FRANKLIN takes ALICE’s bag from OFFICER2 and
offers ALICE his left arm. FRANKLIN is carrying both
ALICE’s bag and his cane in his right hand)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-2 Page 71
(FRANKLIN leads ALICE toward stage left. He pauses en
route and gestures for ALICE to curtsy one last time.
ALICE turns to the audience and curtsies.
(applause swells, then ceases)
FRANKLIN
(bows to ALICE)
You are Alice Kortright, sister to Sergeant Kortright, called Sarg by preference;
am I correct, madam diva?
ALICE
Gotta get t’ my wagon. A body can’t trust nobody these days.
(shakes her head)
A body can’t even take a minute t’ do ’er business.
(ALICE exits, muttering; FRANKLIN looks after her)
FRANKLIN
(notices he still has ALICE’s carpetbag; he calls after her)
Madam Diva! Wait! I have your bag!
(exits)
Wait! Wait!
BLACKOUT
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-3 Page 72
ACT II
SCENE 3
(Holy Apostles Church, NY. A pulpit / lectern
stands on a 3-step platform at stage-rear. Behind
this, hanging from the ceiling, or attached to the
rear wall, is a large crucifix. In front of the altar are
3 round tables, each ringed with 7 chairs. ALICE is
sitting at Table1; SINGER2 is sitting at Table2;
SINGER3 at Table3. Optional: each table is
occupied by 6 other people. There is a plate and a
cup at each place. FRANKLIN is standing at stagefront, with his back to the audience. He is holding
his cane, ALICE’s bag, and, protruding from the
bag, ALICE’s bouquet. He is trying to catch his
breath)
(FRANKLIN approaches ALICE and sets her bag down on
the floor next to her chair. He pulls a daisy from the bag)
FRANKLIN
(offering the flower to ALICE)
A flower for you today, Madam Diva?
(ALICE flinches as if to a fright, turns abruptly away from
FRANKLIN, and folds her arms across her chest)
(FRANKLIN pulls the remaining stems from ALICE’s bag
and, circling the table, places a stem above each plate.
Arriving again at ALICE’s place, FRANKLIN slips the
seventh stem back into ALICE’s bag.
FRANKLIN
(leans close to ALICE’s ear; speaks in a low voice)
It has been a great honor to meet the Diva of Pennsylvania Station, however
briefly.
(ALICE lifts her chin in defiance while still looking away
from FRANKLIN; she’s having none of FRANKLIN or
anyone else)
FRANKLIN
(in a low voice)
No one in this world, Madam Diva, not even a failed hero, should be left to
naught but his regrets.
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-3 Page 73
(FRANKLIN straightens and taps his way to and up the
altar steps. He turns to face the audience. He is standing
beside the pulpit/lectern, not behind it)
(There is a background sound of dining activity but none of
conversation. The people sitting at the tables have their
eyes fixed on their plates. They are eating rapidly, as if to
finish before anyone can rob them of what’s left of their
meal.)
FRANKLIN
(in elevated voice)
It would appear to be a general law of nature –
(FRANKLIN pauses)
(the background sound begins diminishes)
FRANKLIN
It would appear to be a general law of nature, that in every group of at least
seven persons, there is at least one leader.
(FRANKLIN pauses)
(the background sound diminishes to silence)
FRANKLIN
(bows)
Thank you.
(continues)
It would appear to be a general law of nature, good friends, that in every
accidental assemblage of at least seven persons, there is included amongst them
at least one leader – as indeed was the case in ancient China, in the year 4004
BC, when, according to Chu Fung Ming, the great chronicler, seven travelers
discovered themselves one moonless night fallen into the same pit, at the
bottom of which was a well filled to its brim. Their prison being absent any
purchase for ascendance, their fate would appear to be absent all hope.
(pauses; continues)
At first, there was much despairing amongst the seven, and not a little selfpitying, but then, come morning, one of the seven, ciphering by eye the height
of the pit, and gaining the attention thereupon of his six companions, this by
way of breaking into song –‘If I had a hammer / I’d hammer in the morning /
I’d hammer in the evening’ – said unto his comrades: ‘Fellow travelers, if we
are to stand here as individuals, alone in our despair, passive in our
helplessness, dispirited in our sorrow, here we shall remain; here we shall
perish, none of us having yet fully lived. If, however, we were to agree to
decide, by simple lottery, who amongst us should be escaped by the other six,
we might then construct a ladder of ourselves, each man, save the bottom-most,
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-3 Page 74
sitting upon the shoulders of another, such that the highest-most might then
stand to full height upon the shoulders of the second-highest man, and
thereupon pull himself unto liberation.’
(pauses; continues)
All agreeing to this scheme, our seven accidental victims proceeded to draw
lots, each knowing that only one of their number would to be escaped, but that,
even so, the six left behind would have helped a fellow traveler gain a second
chance at living his life to fullest.
Now, as fate would farther have it for our seven star-crossed travelers, the
leader of this scheme, although drawing lastly, drew the numeral 1, thereby
entitling him, by assumption of the six others, to first choice regarding claiming
a position upon the human ladder. Immediately thereupon, there was much
grumbling and dissension amongst the six losers, this devolving unto accusation
and recrimination, our unhappy six having previously learnt, by way of much
travail, to suspicion the intentions of any but themselves. Our leader, however,
being in fact a true leader, responded in the only way such a one might, saying
to his companions: ‘O no, no, you misunderstand. I thought I had been clear:
The person drawing the numeral 1 is to stand in the first position, that is, at
bottom, whilst the person drawing the numeral 7 is to stand in the seventh
position, that is, at top.’ And with this declaration, the other six travelers freely
assented to their chosen lots.
(pauses; continues)
And so a human ladder was constructed of our seven travelers, the sixth bearing
upward the seventh upon his shoulders; the fifth bearing upward these two upon
his shoulders; and so on and so on until the first man, our leader, was bearing
upon his shoulders, at bottom, more weight than any man should ever be
allowed.
Steadied then by the uplifted arms of the sixth man, our seventh traveler raised
himself to full height and, reaching upward, managed to grasp sufficient
purchase beyond the rim of the pit as to be able to pull himself to freedom,
leaving thereby his fellow travelers behind – which condition, our escaped
traveler at once realized, he simply could not abide. Indeed, the six fellows left
behind, only recently but strangers to him, were now his brethren. Either all
seven were to thrive together, or all seven were to perish together – and that was
an end on it!
In this moment of realization, something very strange occurred: Where, in the
far recesses of this traveler’s imagination, there heretofore had been little
evidence of natural cunning or creative flair, there now emerged, like a genie
from a lantern long unattended, a most vivid image, which image our escaped
traveler immediately strove to imitate. Firstly, he implored his comrades to bear
yet a little longer the burden the draw of lots had fated upon each one. He then
set about renting his shirt and breeches into ribbons, and weaving these into a
strand of sturdy cord. Finally, he lowered one end to this cord to the sixth
traveler, such as to be able then to pull his brother also to liberation.
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-3 Page 75
Now, as you might have anticipated, upon being escaped by this collaborative
means, our sixth traveler converted his own clothing into a strand of cord,
which article he added to the first, such that he and his comrade could
thereupon pull the fifth traveler to freedom. And so it went until all seven
comrades were escaped, and standing in each other’s company, as starkly and
joyfully naked, except for the last comrade, as babes new born.
(looks to ALICE)
As most of you can well affirm, I suspect, pain tends to shorten the range of
one’s vision. The greater the torture, the shorter the range. Consider the miller
whose hand has become entrapped under a grinding stone. How far beyond the
wall of his agony might this poor fellow, in the moment, cast his eyes?
(pauses; continues)
Indeed, the more pain we suffer, of whatever species, emanant of whatever
source, the more likely we are to miss observing that, no matter how wretched
might be our present circumstance, no matter how deep might be the pit into
which we have tumbled, we are never alone. Always there are like-others in
close proximity, indeed not more than an arm’s length away. In this regard, you
might wish to take notice in the moment that you are presently in company
with, in most cases, at least six like-others; and farther, that the lot of you are
arranged as you would be were you sitting at the bottom of a pit containing a
well; and farther, that there is no immediate cause for you to leave the company
of your tablemates until such time as one amongst you has ventured to stand
and sing a few notes of a worthy ode.
(FRANKLIN holds silent)
(ALICE jumps to her feet; sings in bold voice)
If I had a hammer / I’d hammer in the morning / I’d hammer in the evening –
SINGER2
(jumps to his / her feet at a Table2; joins ALICE in song;
sings in harmony)
I’d hammer out danger / I’d hammer out a warning…
SINGER3
(jumps to his / her feet at a Table3; joins ALICE and
SINGER2 in song; sings in harmony)
I’d hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters / all over this land
(As the singing continues, FRANKLIN descends from the
altar and taps his way to where ALICE is standing. He slips
the daisy stem from her bag and offers it toward her)
A flower for you today, Madam Diva?
(the volume level of the signing lessens a bit)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-3 Page 76
(ALICE accepts the flower and, holding it to her breast,
begins to weep. FRANKLIN embraces her; rocks her.
ALICE continues to weep)
(the volume level of the singing boldly increases)
Well we've got a hammer
And we've got a bell
And we've got a song to sing
All over this land
It's the hammer of justice
It's the bell of freedom
It's the song about love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land –
BLACKOUT
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-4 Page 77
ACT II
SCENE 4
(University of Pennsylvania campus. Dusk: the
ambient light is low. FRANKLIN is approaching
the intersection of Locust Walk and the 37th Street
walk, moving toward the audience. A banner behind
FRANKLIN reads, “Welcome to Penn / Founded by
Ben Franklin.” A bench to FRANKLIN’s right, on
the other side of the 37th Street walk, is biased
toward the audience, and is occupied at the far end
by a seated statuary.)
(FRANKLIN taps his way to the intersection.
PEDESTRIAN1, wearing a backpack and earbuds, and
thumbing a smartphone, enters stage-right and passes in
front of FRANKLIN)
FRANKLIN
(lifts an arm)
Excuse me? Could you give me directions?
(PEDESTRIAN1, showing no response, exits stage-left)
(FRANKLIN steps into the intersection)
(PEDESTRIAN2, wearing a backpack and earbuds,
thumbing a smartphone, enters stage-left and passes in
front of FRANKLIN)
FRANKLIN
(gesturing with both arms)
Excuse me? Could you give me directions, kindly?
(pursuing PEDESTRIAN2)
Excuse me?
(DAVID enters stage-left on a Segway [real or a mockup],
wearing a backpack and earbuds. He is holding the handle
with both sets of fingers while manipulating a smartphone
with both thumbs)
(PEDESTRIAN2 exits stage-right)
(FRANKLIN, turning to his right and moving further into
the intersection, collides with DAVID. FRANKLIN
stumbles backward and falls onto the pavement [something
soft], uttering a groan)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-4 Page 78
DAVID
(obviously shaken; kneels near FRANKLIN’s head)
I’m so sorry. Are you all right? Is anything broken? Should I call 9-1-1?
FRANKLIN
If I can stand, sir, and take a step, I am intact.
(DAVID assists FRANKLIN to his feet, and retrieves
FRANKLIN’s cane. FRANKLIN begins to wobble)
DAVID
(grasps FRANKLIN firmly by the arm)
There’s a bench right on the corner here. You probably know of it.
FRANKLIN
O, I certainly doubt so, sir. Much has changed in two hundred and twenty-five
years.
DAVID
(steering FRANKLIN toward the bench)
Good point.
FRANKLIN
(pausing; looking to the pavement)
There appears to be a compass mosaic embedded into this intersection, taking
up near the whole of it. What is the meaning?
DAVID
We’re standing at the center of the universe.
FRANKLIN
(chuckles)
A common notion, that.
(DAVID and FRANKLIN pause in front of the bench)
FRANKLIN
(notices the statuary on the far end; shows surprise)
‘Tis a likeness of myself! The bench is pedestal to it.
DAVID
But still a bench.
(DAVID eases FRANKLIN onto the near end of the bench)
FRANKLIN
(looking to the mirror-image of himself on the far end of
the bench)
Most curious.
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-4 Page 79
DAVID
(retrieves his Segway, then squats at FRANKLIN’s feet
onto one knee)
How‘re you feeling? Is there someone I can call to come and get you?
FRANKLIN
You are most kind, sir, but I require but a few moments of repose to collect
myself. It’s been a most strenuous day.
(DAVID looks from FRANKLIN to the likeness on the
other end of the bench, and again to FRANKLIN, who is
holding his cane in mirror-image to the statuary)
(PEDESTRIAN2 enters stage-right and moves toward
stage-left)
DAVID
Cool.
(Rising to his feet, DAVID pulls his smartphone from his
shirt pocket, holds it toward FRANKLIN and the statuary,
and backs up a few steps –into the path of PEDESTRIAN2)
PEDESTRIAN2
Excuse me!
DAVID
(flinches; turns to PEDESTRIAN2)
Sorry.
FRANKLIN
That device, young man, is likely to be the instrument of an untimely demise –
your own or that of some unfortunate innocent.
(DAVID aims his smartphone toward FRANKLIN and the
statuary. FRANKLIN blinks to a flash. DAVID holds the
screen of his smartphone toward FRANKLIN)
DAVID
You’re a dead ringer.
FRANKLIN
(chuckles)
O, how true, sir. How true.
DAVID
(returns his smartphone to his shirt pocket)
Mind if I hang with you a bit? I’m not going to be able to rest easy unless I’m
certain you’re going to be OK. You took quite a hit back there. I’m really sorry.
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-4 Page 80
FRANKLIN
You need not attend upon me any farther, good sir. I feel quite hale if not quite
hardy. I’m sure you have other matters to attend to. You have been most kind.
DAVID
(holds his right hand toward FRANKLIN)
David Bornstein.
FRANKLIN
(shaking David’s hand)
Benjamin Franklin.
DAVID
(chuckles)
I had an inkling.
FRANKLIN
I would invite you to take a seat, Mister Bornstein, toward your own comfort,
but there would appear to be insufficient space to accommodate the two of us –
rather, the three of us.
(David crosses his right ankle behind his left ankle, and
biasing himself slightly forward, lowers himself into a
sitting position, knees akimbo)
FRANKLIN
(amazed)
Even at the height of my prowess as a lissome swimmer, sir, I would not have
been able to imitate what I have just witnessed.
DAVID
It’s a little harder going the other way.
FRANKLIN
(looking to the Segway standing erect)
I suspect, given the posture of your broomstick, sir, that you have found other
ways to defy gravity.
DAVID
(chuckles)
Only in my dreams. Every once in a while I dream I can fly.
FRANKLIN
Ah, I’ve had that very one! – only to awaken, as in the case of yourself, I
suspect, and find myself yet tethered to my troubles.
DAVID
Exactly.
FRANKLIN
(looks again to the Segway)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-4 Page 81
Regarding further your broomstick, sir; it is a relatively uncommon means of
transport, is it not? I have encountered no other like it in the course of sojourns
now through three great cities.
DAVID
Ya, mainly they’re just a novelty. They’re way too expensive, and the logistics
are way too complicated, for them to be practical. The only reason I’ve got this
one is because my father, who’s read gadget guy, sent it to me. He thought it’d
be perfect for getting around on campus. He told me he was going to send me
his, but then he decided I should have one with all the latest bells and whistles
on it, so he had this one shipped here instead.
FRANKLIN
Do I sense a father being perhaps a little too encouraging toward his son
becoming a likeness of himself?
DAVID
I absolutely hate gadgets – at least as much as my father loves them – always
have. After twenty-four years, you’d think he’d finally get the message!
FRANKLIN
I confess a curiosity, sir, as to whether, in standing upon this relatively
uncommon device, you perhaps stand upon something of a center of things, by
way of the notice, if not the envy, drawn unto you. Feel free to scold me, sir, if I
am too forward in inviting myself into your parlour.
DAVID
No; no problem. I’d have to agree with what you suggest, in principle – don’t
all novelties draw attention? But, as I said, the only reason I’ve got this
particular novelty is because my father sent it to me, with the expectation, of
course, that I would use it.
FRANKLIN
Should I infer then that you employ this particular novelty, even against the
cumbersome logistics to which you alluded, not for the utility it renders you,
nor for the notice it draws to you, but alone toward meeting an obligation
received apiece with the item itself?
DAVID
OK, it does separate me from the crowd a bit; and, yes, there is some degree of
satisfaction in that.
FRANKLIN
(bows toward DAVID)
I would appear to be in the presence of an honest man. Now, sir, if I might
linger in your parlour one moment longer, might it likewise be the case that you
enjoy some measure of satisfaction in being a matriculate at this particular
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-4 Page 82
institution, it being also a center of things – the “center of the universe,” you put
it? I take liberty to assume you are indeed a matriculate at this institution.
DAVID
You’re tough.
(nods)
Yes, I am a matriculate here. I’m at the Wharton School. And, yes, I have to
agree with what you suggest – being an honest man and all.
FRANKLIN
Might one infer then, from your confession, that esteem is of some importance
to you, and, by inference, you being representative of a larger whole, to the
majority of your race?
DAVID
A basic requirement, I think.
FRANKLIN
(bows toward DAVID)
I am truly in the presence of an honest man. Now, sir, before your kind
hospitality should find its limit, might I have your opinion regarding whether
there should be as much consideration attended upon the means by which one
gathers his esteem as upon the object itself?
DAVID
More, I would have to say.
FRANKLIN
And the reason?
DAVID
Machiavelli to the contrary, the end does not always justify the means.
FRANKLIN
(bows toward DAVID)
I appear to be in the presence of a man who is not only honest but also a
philosopher, which, in truth, no honest man can other than be.
DAVID
Whatever you’re selling, I’ll take a dozen.
FRANKLIN
I speak not to flatter, sir, but to acknowledge the truth as I discover it.
DAVID
Thank you.
FRANKLIN
Now, young sir, begging your hospitality yet a moment longer, might I have
your opinion as regards the nature of esteem itself? Is there but one flavour of
this that varies in degree, or might there be a variety of flavours each one
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-4 Page 83
varying in degree? For example, sir, is the esteem one might derive from
attaining a high office of a flavour with the esteem one might derive from
denying oneself the same office such as to serve his wife and children with
greater care and concern?
DAVID
A variety, I would have to say.
FRANKLIN
And which of the two flavours just mentioned, sir, if I might linger in your
parlour one moment longer, would hold its sweet unto one’s last breath?
DAVID
(nods)
Interesting.
FRANKLIN
(leans toward DAVID)
If, by way of lingering too long in your parlour, sir, I should press you to
consult your timepiece, that you might beg your leave with grace, I would take
no offence, please be assured.
DAVID
I’m not going anywhere until I find out where all this is going. Who the hell are
you anyway?
FRANKLIN
I’m a mariner, sir, in search of truth that I might live it; live it that I might tell it.
As to where all this is going, as you put it, ’tis likely to go wherever you and I
should, in concert, steer it. In this regard, sir, might I inquire of you as to
whether, in your opinion, the mosaic gracing the location of our chance meeting
– “the center of the universe,” as you put it – has an interpretation beyond the
one you suggest.
DAVID
It’s roughly the center of the campus, if that’s what you mean.
FRANKLIN
And if this mosaic bore a needle, sir, such as to point in one direction or
another; what then? Have you an opinion?
DAVID
I don’t, but I suspect you do.
FRANKLIN
(bows)
I apologize. I am too eager, time being too short. Might it be reasonable to infer
of this symbol, sir, that it is as important to be concerned with the direction of
one’s life as it is to be concerned with its present status?
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-4 Page 84
DAVID
Are you referring to career choice?
FRANKLIN
Career is itself a choice, is it not, sir? Whether to embrace such a thing or not?
DAVID
It is, but it’s a given in our culture. You will go to college. You will have a
career.
FRANKLIN
You will conform. You will not question.
DAVID
Something like that.
FRANKLIN
Are you schooled in letters, sir? Do you author various pieces toward meeting
the requirements imposed by your masters?
DAVID
Tons.
FRANKLIN
And do you ever author such pieces without benefit of the guidance, call it
direction, that an explicit statement of purpose provides?
DAVID
“Compare and contrast the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes and Leo
Strauss in one hundred words or less’ – that what you mean?
FRANKLIN
Precisely so.
DAVID
No.
FRANKLIN
The content of every piece then, every coherent piece, is a function of a
particular purpose.
DAVID
Yes.
FRANKLIN
By way of analogy, sir, might we apply this same truth to the contents of every
life? Indeed, are we not all the scribes of the essential contents of our lives, line
by line, paragraph by paragraph, such that he who adopts as his central purpose
an amassment of gadgetry, the prestige deriving of novelty, shall author a very
different history than he who adopts as his central purpose the rendering of aid
and comfort to the ill advantaged?
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-4 Page 85
DAVID
I take your point.
FRANKLIN
In fact, sir, human beings make no choice without there being a purpose behind
it, such purpose providing the very direction toward which the choice is aimed,
would you agree?
DAVID
As long as you’re not requiring the kind of purpose you’re talking about to be
always consciously held. I think a lot of people do a lot of things without really
thinking about them or knowing why they’re doing what they’re doing.
FRANKLIN
Yet, every choice is still to purpose, is it not? In fact, is not the unconscious
mind every bit as willful – call it purposeful – as the conscious mind? Is it not
as likely as not, in fact, that Archimedes was asleep in his bathtub at the very
moment of his famous ‘awakening?
DAVID
Who are you anyway?
FRANKLIN
A dead ringer, I have been led to believe.
DAVID
From now on I’m going to be very careful about looking where I’m going.
FRANKLIN
I expect you shall. Now, sir, considering again the compass mosaic embedded
at the near intersection, would you be inclined to agree that one cannot stand at
the center of this without assuming a particular bearing of direction, the two
states – standing at center of a directional, and assuming a particular bearing –
being as inseparable as two faces upon the same coin?
DAVID
I would.
FRANKLIN
Might you be inclined to agree also, sir, by way of analogy, that one cannot
align one’s self with a particular purpose without assuming a particular bearing
of direction?
DAVID
Do I have a choice?
FRANKLIN
(bows toward DAVID)
In fact, sir, is not the compass at the physical center of this university a
representation of the university itself, the latter being, in effect, a kind of center
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-4 Page 86
upon which young indentures are invited to stand, and thereon to be asked, in a
myriad of forms, by innumerable interlocutors, the greatest of all inquiries, to
wit: What is to be the purpose of the life with which you have been uniquely
blest? And is not the answer that each indenture renders to this inquiry, sir, by
way of his faculties of reason and reflection, the very arrow by which the vessel
of his life is given direction? And does not this direction thereupon determine,
in large measure, sir, the flavour of the esteem he shall gather, indeed whether it
shall be of a kind to turn to sour or of a kind to hold steadfastly to sweet?
DAVID
Am I dreaming this? Am I about to flap my wings and take off?
FRANKLIN
One can be awake and asleep in simultaneity, sir, just as one can be riding his
broomstick and manipulating his device in simultaneity, yes?
DAVID
(shakes his head)
This is surreal. Was I the one hit his head?
FRANKLIN
Although I have tarried you in your parlour too long a’ready, sir, by way of my
meddlesome inquiries, if I might be indulged one last curiosity, I would like to
inquire of you the particular purpose you presently hold for your own life, the
very purpose, presumably, that has directed you unto this campus.
DAVID
(pulls his smartphone form his shirt pocket and checks the
time)
A story for another time.
(stuffs his smartphone back into his shirt pocket)
I’m meeting my dad in a bit. He’s taking the train down from New York.
FRANKLIN
A special visit?
DAVID
He’s delivering the keynote at the Convention Center tomorrow, on “The Next
Big Thing.”
FRANKLIN
Your father must be a man of considerable stature.
DAVID
He’s the head dude at Global Tel.
FRANKLIN
Might I infer from the nimbus I presently see about you, sir, that this fact about
your father, that he bears golden epaulettes upon his shoulders, is a source of
some pride to you? That it places you in a kind of center of things?
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-4 Page 87
DAVID
(shakes his head)
You’d be great in a courtroom.
FRANKLIN
(bows).
Thank you, sir. I do indeed have some experience in that arena – rather more,
however, as the bull than the matador. Now, as to your answer, sir?
DAVID
Yes, my father’s position is in fact a source of some pride to me, as you put it;
and, yes, it does, I suppose, place me in a kind of center of things, as you put it.
FRANKLIN
And your father’s present course, sir – his own bearing of compass – is it, or
similar, to become yours, as gosling after goose?”
DAVID
That’s sort of why I’m here, I suppose.
FRANKLIN
At the Wharton School.
(David nods)
FRANKLIN
Well then, fair winds to you, sir!
(poises to rise)
Might you direct me to where I could enlist the services of a hackney cab? I
have a destiny to keep.
DAVID
(rises to his feet, followed by FRANKLIN)
This time of night
(looks northward, southward, eastward, westward – back to
Ben)
Tell you what.
(looks to his Segway)
Take my Segway. It’s really easy to operate, and it’ll get you around this time
of night a lot faster, and cheaper, than anything else.
FRANKLIN
Most generous of you, sir! Most generous indeed! But do you not require
service of your device yourself, sir, such as to greet your father?
DAVID
(casts his eyes downward, looks to FRANKLIN)
That was my father I was texting when I bumped into you. He left a message
telling me he’d be taking an early train down from New York in the morning
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-4 Page 88
instead of the late train tonight. Someone from the White House had invited
him to dinner. There were indications of an ambassadorship being discussed.
FRANKLIN
I’m so very sorry. You must be greatly disappointed.
DAVID
(shrugs)
No big deal. I was only going to get to see him for an hour anyway.
FRANKLIN
You must be greatly disappointed.
(DAVID casts his eyes downward)
FRANKLIN
I’m so very sorry.
(DAVID nods)
FRANKLIN
I’m grateful.
DAVID
(looks to FRANKLIN)
For what?
FRANKLIN
Being in the presence of an honest man.
DAVID
I lied to you.
FRANKLIN
To protect yourself to the injury of no one.
(looks to DAVID’s Segway)
Now, kind sir, show me if you would how to mount this magical broomstick.
BLACKOUT
DAVID
(out of the darkness)
Who the hell are you?
FRANKLIN
(out of the darkness)
I am you, sir; or I am nothing at all.
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-5 Page 89
ACT II
SCENE 5
(Mid-January, Boston. SARG is standing at the
corner of Washington and School Streets, stage left;
the two facing benches are empty. A green bucket at
SARG’s feet holds six daisy stems. SARG is
holding a seventh stem in a bare hand. Each daisy
stem is embellished with a brightly colored ribbon:
red, green, or blue. A newspaper HAWKER is
standing at stage-right, opposite SARG. Two
bundles of newspapers stand at his feet. He is
warmly dressed. SARG is shivering.)
(PEDESTRIAN1 appears from stage left)
SARG
(holding a daisy stem toward PEDESTRIAN1)
A flower for you today, sir?
(PEDESTRIAN1 makes no eye contact and continues
toward the HAWKER)
HAWKER
(holding a newspaper from bundle1 toward
PEDESTRIAN1)
Depression deepens! Riots hit New York! Blood in the street! Read all about it!
(HAWKER accepts money from PEDESTRIAN1; gives
him a paper. PEDESTRIAN1 exits stage right)
(PEDESTRIAN2 appears from stage left)
SARG
(holding a daisy stem toward PEDESTRIAN2)
A flower for you today, sir?
(PEDESTRIAN2 makes no eye contact and continues
toward the HAWKER)
HAWKER
(holding a newspaper from Bundle2 toward
PEDESTRIAN2)
Loch Ness monster captured! See exclusive photos!
(HAWKER accepts money from PEDESTRIAN2; gives
him a paper. PEDESTRIAN2 exits stage right)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-5 Page 90
(THUG1 and THUG2 appear from stage left and attack
SARG. They scatter the flowers and pummel the man)
SARG
Help! Help!
(HAWKER picks up his bundles of newspapers and exits
stage right)
(THUG1 pushes the green flower bucket onto SARG’s
head)
THUG1
Look! A pothead!
(laughing, THUG1 and THUG2 exit stage right)
(It begins to snow)
(SARG pulls the flower bucket off his head. He struggles to
get up; he collapses)
SARG
(in little more than a whisper)
Help me. Somebody help me. Please.
(PEDESTRIAN1 enters stage-right, passes by SARG, and
exits stage-left)
(SARG retrieves three daisy stems from the pavement and
holds them against his breast; he weeps)
(PEDESTRIAN2 enters stage-left, passes by SARG, and
exits stage-right)
(SARG stirs to a faint sound of singing)
(He cocks an ear)
VOICE
I'd sing it in the morning
I'd sing it in the evening
All over this land…
(Spotlight on SARG; stage lights go dark)
(SARG rises; wobbles; steadies himself)
(Spot light on ALICE standing at the corner of Milk and
Washington: stage right, toward the rear)
ALICE
(with great exuberance)
I'd sing out danger
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
II-5 Page 91
I'd sing out a warning
I'd sing out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land…
SARG
(joining ALICE)
Well we've got a hammer
And we've got a bell
And we've got a song to sing
All over this land
It's the hammer of justice
It's the bell of freedom
It's the song about love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land –
BLACKOUT
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
E-1 Page 92
EPILOGUE
SCENE 1
(FRANKLIN’s chamber in purgatory. FRANKLIN
is sitting in a chair facing the audience. Three
candles – one red, one green, one blue – are burning
on a small table standing to one side. A sheaf of
papers and a quill pen are lying on the table. A sheet
or two of the papers are sitting crosswise on the
others. Several piles of papers are resting on the
floor near FRANKLIN’s feet. A walking stick is
propped against the chair. FRANKLIN is wearing a
medium-brown suit with matching vest. He is
wearing bifocals and is illumed as if by candlelight;
the chamber is otherwise dark.)
FRANKLIN
(addressing the audience)
I have spent the night in this chair reviewing some of my old compositions –
beginning with my first Silence Dogood epistle of 2 April 1722, when I was 16,
and ending, more or less, with my Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim satire of 5 March
1789, when I was 83. Mostly this exercise was an entertainment, a sort of revue,
but also, I began to realize, an exploration to discover if there might be a
particular composition I might wish to take with me, borne in some far recess of
my soul, such that it, the substance of it, might be called forth at some critical
moment in the future. Only moments ago did I settle on such a composition,
writ by me on the evening of 16 September 1787, preceding the final vote on
the Constitution. If you have the time and will to hear it, I would like to read it
to you now, for reasons that shall become apparent, in lieu of Mr. Wilson
serving as my surrogate, as that man so splendidly did on the fateful morning.
(takes the crosswise sheets from the table and looking to
them, begins to read)
“I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at
present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them; for having lived
long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information,
or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects [that] I
once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I
grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to
the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as most sects in religion think
themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them
it is so far error. Steele[,] a Protestant[,] in a dedication[,] tells the Pope that the
only difference between our churches in their opinions of the certainty of their
doctrines is the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
E-1 Page 93
never in the wrong. But, though many private persons think almost as highly of
their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a
certain French Lady who, in a dispute with her sister[,] said: ‘I don’t know how
it happens, sister, but I meet with nobody but myself that is always in the
right.’”
(three door-knocks from stage left; FRANKLIN turns to his
right)
FRANKLIN
Aye, they are here! They who will escort me to my fate! Come in, gentlemen!
Come in! Come in!
(CLARENCE and BARTHOLOMEW enter the chamber
from stage left. All three are illumed to the effect of
appearing ghostlike. BARTHOLOMEW is holding a small
bundle)
(FRANKLIN pulls a pocket watch from his vest as
CLAREANCE and BARTHOLOMEW approach)
FRANKLIN
Why are you not the usual quarter-hour tardy?
BARTHOLOMEW
(approaching FRANKLIN)
Try as we might, we were yet unable to gather sufficient moss to impede our
progress.
(BARTHOLOMEW takes station on FRANKLIN’s right;
CLARENCE on FRANKLIN’s left)
FRANKLIN
But did manage to gather a Franklinia alatamaha, I see.
CLARENCE
In your honor, sir, on this most momentous of occasions.
(BARTHOLOMEW and CLARENCE bow to Ben in
unison. FRANKLIN bows to each Intermediary in
succession.)
BARTHOLOMEW
Shall we proceed, sir?
FRANKLIN
(rises from his chair with CLARENCE grasping one arm,
BARTHOLOMEW the other)
O what a glorious day this is to be!
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
E-1 Page 94
(FRANLKIN accepts his cane from CLARENCE.
CLARENCE and BARTHOLOMEW lead FRANKLIN
inward, toward stage-rear)
BLACKOUT
(The table, chair, and bundles of papers are removed)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
E-2 Page 95
EPILOGUE
SCENE 2
(The Celestial Court as it was in Act I, Scene 2,
with the three lights pulsating atop the crystalline
bench: one red, one green, one blue. Within the
bench is a kaleidoscope of ever-changing colors.
The stage is dark except for spotlights on
FRANKLIN, CLARENCE, and
BARTHOLOMEW, all three of whom are facing
inward, toward the crystalline bench)
FRANKLIN
All is as it was.
BARTHOLOMEW
The circle being the only geometry?
FRANKLIN
Aye. And a good thing ‘tis, I would have to say.
CLARENCE
For you, sir. Not so much, I must declare, for those who have grown
fond of you.
FRANKLIN
It is necessary.
CLARENCE
But is it practical, sir?
FRANKLIN
A pudding unsampled tells naught.
CLARENCE
True enough.
BARTHOLOMEW
(offering the small bundle toward FRANKLIN)
Your gown, sir.
(CLARENCE and BARTOLOMEW help FRANKLIN
remove his suit and shirt, and begin to fit him with a
hospital gown. FRANKLIN takes obvious notice of the
impenetrability of the front of the gown)
FRANKLIN
You have it backwards.
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
E-2 Page 96
CLARENCE
It ties in the back, sir.
FRANKLIN
(shows consternation)
Why?
BARTHOLOMEW
No one knows.
FRANKLIN
(shakes his head)
Apparently things are a lot worse down there than I had allowed myself to
believe.
BARTHOLOMEW
There is still time to change your mind, sir. You would be faulted in no regard.
FRANKLIN
The die is cast.
CLARENCE
(bows)
Very good, sir.
(wipes his eyes with his linen; again bows)
It has been a great honor to serve you, good sir.
FRANKLIN
(bows in return)
You have been exemplary in ever regard, dear friend.
BARTHOLOMEW
(wipes his eyes with his linen, bows)
‘Tis been an honor beyond measure, sir.
(FRANKLIN bows to BARTHOLOMEW, then again to
CLARENCE)
It pains me ever so keenly in this moment to know I will not know you in all
others.
FRANKLIN
(droops his head)
Off with you!
(BARTHOLOMEW and CLARENCE bow in unison
toward FRANKLIN; then toward each other. Moving in
opposite directions, and out of their spotlights, which go
dark, they exit stage-left and stage-right)
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
E-2 Page 97
FRANKLIN
(noticing movement atop the CLERK’s perch)
Are you left alone in this chamber, friend?
(The CLERK becomes illumed by spotlight; he is sitting on
his perch; a separate spotlight remains on FRANKLIN,
below)
CLERK
I am, sir.
FRANKLIN
Is this your destiny?
CLERK
It has been so.
FRANKLIN
Of your own choosing?
CLERK
Of necessity, sir.
FRANKLIN
I am sorry to hear this.
CLERK
’Tis little trouble, but I thank you for your concern.
WASHINGTON
So let there be light.
(A spotlight illumes WASHINGTON standing atop the
other ivory perch. WASHINGTON, the CLERK, and
FRANKLIN form a symmetry that includes the crystalline
bench and the pulsating lights above it)
WASHINGTON
There is an awareness of self, good sir, I am required to remind you, only by
facility of memory. Render one’s memory to oblivion, render one’s self to
oblivion. The death you freely embrace, good sir, must of necessity be both
total and irreversible. All knowledge of you by you shall be forever lost to you.
Do you yet willingly proceed?
FRANKLIN
(stiffens; speaks in a firm voice)
I do.
CLERK
(jumps to his feet)
No greater love!
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald
E-2 Page 98
WASHINGTON
You may proceed, sir.
(wipes his eyes with a linen)
Fare thee well.
(WASHINGTON and the CLERK bow toward
FRANKLIN and remain bent at 45-degree angles)
(As FRANKLIN steps toward the crystalline bench, the three pulsating lights
merge into a single white light. FRANKLIN stops at the front of the bench and
turns to face the audience. The white light begins to descend toward him.
FRANKLIN
(turns to face the audience)
‘Tis a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done.
(The same ethereal music as in Act I, Scene1, can be heard)
(FRANKLIN lays his cane on the floor and turns to face
the crystalline bench)
(The instant the white light touches the top of
FRANKLIN’s head, there is a brilliant flash)
BLACKOUT
(off-stage: sound of a newborn baby’s first cry)
(a spotlight illumes DEBORAH climbing down from the
CLERK’s perch, and follows her to the front of the
crystalline bench)
(There is no music; no white light)
DEBORAH
(turns to face the audience)
What forgiveness in the seeking of it is not ever the gaining of it?
(DEBORAH picks up FRANKLIN’s cane; turns to face the
crystalline bench. The bench fills with white light. A flash)
BLACKOUT
(off-stage: sound of a newborn baby’s first cry)
(pause)
CURTAIN
SINS OF THE FATHER by Tom Fitzgerald