Rosaline and Benvolio
a play
by Jerry Prager
Copyright: 1st draft
Oct. 18 2002
working draft
March 9 2016
Cast of Characters
Age
Prince (Bartolomeo della Scala) duke of Verona, a Ghibillene
35
Constance,
his wife
33
Francesco della Scala
brother of the duke
14
Dante Alghieri
exiled poet, guest, a Guelph
38
Mercutio d'Este
nephew of the duke,
24
Theodurus
bodyguard to Francesco
50
Paris
nephew to the duke
25
Benvolio
a Montague, a Guelph
17
Rosaline
a Capulet
17
Nurse
(Rosaline's)
42
Friar
a Franciscan
54
Romeo
Benvolio's cousin
15
Juliet
Rosaline's cousin
15
Capulet
Rosaline's uncle, a Ghibilene
45
Lady Capulet
Rosaline's aunt
35
Tybalt
Rosaline's cousin
24
Antonio
a watchman
30
Paoli
a watchman
40
sundry citizens, servants, and family members
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1
Overture
The Friar stands on the wall overlooking the Adige River, (pr: Ah-didge-eh) singing
The river is born in the mountains
born out of ice-melt from peaks
from rains and runoff and springs
that meander the meadows in creeks.
The river forms in the mountains,
forms out of riv'lets and streams
that gather together in cascades
filling the air with our dreams:
for we are the A-dig-e's children
we rage, we roar; we careen,
our lives are turmoil and tumult
before we Veronans are weaned.
yes we are the A-dig-e's children
we rage, we roar; we careen,
our lives are turmoil and tumult
before we Veronan's are weaned.
Prologue
In front of the new merchant hall,stands Prince Bartolomeo della Scala addressing the people of
Verona, who are assembled in the Piazza Erbe (the green market.) Beside him, are his wife, Lady
Constance, his brother Francesco - who is a 14 old boy, and Dante Alighieri, the poet-in-exile. Also in
the area is Mercutio, Benvolio and Romeo, as well as Rosaline, her Nurse, and her cousin Juliet. The
two feuding families stand separate from one another. Tybalt hangs back by the shadows of the Capulet
fortress, which overlooks the square. Friar Lorenzo stands near the cemetery.
Prince
This day, Verona, reserved by my request
for memorium and posterity,
has been overtaken by news from Anagni:
news that now moves like a fire amongst us,
worsened as news ever is by rumour,
and malice.
To lessen those effects, these
are the dispatches I have received,
so that you might know the truth as I know it,
and so tread the narrow path with me:
emissaries of Philip of France, aided
by Sciarra Colonna in Romagna,
yesterday imprisoned Pope Boniface,
intending to bear him to France, where he
will be executed for having convinced
Pope Celestine to resign the pontificate,
so that Boniface could elevate
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2
himself above all temporal powers.
Lest there be any doubt, Veronans, of
where I, the House of della Scala and
the Ghibelline League of Lombardy, stand
in this intrusion of the king of France
into the affairs of church and empire,
let all doubts here cease: any who aid
the allies of France, betray this city.
Those who do not serve peace do not serve me.
The old feud of Guelph and Ghibelline has,
in the events of Agnani, become history,
the past is dying, and we must bury it,
or go to the grave with it.
That said,
I bid you here today for the simpler cause
of celebrating this "casa mercanto"
before which we all now stand, this great hall,
this market of our abundance, begun
by my father three years ago today.
Before entering, I would have you attend
to a guest only just come amongt us.
Exiled from his home and family in Florence,
likewise, by the work of French policy there,
he is known to many as the first poet
to elevate the Italian tongue to heights
never before attempted or attained, so
I give to you the still unfolding genius
of Dante Alighieri.
Dante
My Lord, my Lady, lords and ladies of Verona;
Veronans, and tillers of Lombardy,
for all of us here surrounded by abundance,
I take comfort in the words of your Duke,
Though I was an adherent of Celestine's,
the French drove me from my beloved Florence.
There is no love between Boniface and me, but
Christ has been taken captive with his vicar
and above all else that troubles me today.
For too long we have been divided by
papacy and empire, by Guelphs and Ghibellines.
Today, I consign myself, with you, to the task
of declaring the cause of holy Love
in the language of our unborn nation.
Ciò che Dio ha unito l'uomo non rompono.
Let no one break the peace of this city.
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The Lord of Verona has commanded us all,
grace this edifice with your good will; and
within its walls, find prosperity and peace.
Dante leaves the podium and follows the Prince and his party into the Casa Mercanto.
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4
Act One, Scene One
Inside the hall, the crowd mills about the booths and stalls. Benvolio seeks out Mercutio, Romeo seeks
Rosaline, Juliet shops, as does Rosaline's nurse.
Benvolio
Mercutio !
Mercutio
Benvolio ? It is.
You have fared greatly it would seem this past year,
for you are no longer the boy you were when I left.
Benvolio
You appear to have skinned into old age,
are you unwell ?
Mercutio
I am unslept is all.
Where is Romeo ? for I saw him outside,
but have since lost him to the throng within,
Benvolio
He seeks to fulfill our prince's purpose,
and woos a Capulet across the way.
Mercutio
And the rest of your kin and kind, are they well ?
How is Maria ?
Benvolio
Married, and so,
no longer merry.
Mercutio
I was away too long.
Benvolio
No one knew what had become of you.
Mercutio
Then t'is best she married, is her husband kind?
Benvolio
He is not you, and you are not dead, though
you are now lost to her, and that, she grieves.
Mercutio
She is well wed, and well rid of me also.
Benvolio
She will not think so, nor do I understand.
You have returned, your mission a success,
the Duke is pleased with you, what sorrow is yours?
Mercutio
Come, if Romeo is consumed with service,
walk with me where we can talk in quiet,
for I am free of duty for today,
and would see this hall and then the river wall.
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5
Benvolio
I would hear of how you salvaged Dante
from the ruins of his exile, and I
would learn more of Renato's death in his defense,
and of your prowess those few days ago now.
Mercutio
There is much that is easy to tell if noise
were no obstacle, but of Renato's death
and my response in the field I cannot yet speak,
for it ... but come, we will talk of easier things.
I have a yearning for a quieter peace.
If Romeo is not to be found, we will
walk the woods to the river wall and I
will say what I can, of where I've been...
They wander off.
Act One, Scene Two
Elsewhere, Romeo speaks to Rosaline.
Romeo
How fare you this memorial day fair Rosaline ?
Rosaline
I am fairer than some and darker than others,
how fair are you Romeo ?
Romeo
I am generous to a fault.
Rosaline
Romeo
Whose fault is that ?
All faults are my own.
Rosaline
If you own all faults,
can that be fair?
Romeo
Why, wwould you keep the flaws
you have ?
Rosaline
So you see me flawed?
Romeo
I would see you every day were you
marred or unfair, or even faulty featured.
Rosaline
To see me as often as you desire
would require days so unlike these that I
must suspect your reasoning.
Romeo
Then I shall hear you only,
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close my eyes to Capulet, open my ears to...
Rosaline
You have yet to hear me Romeo.
Romeo
Here I am then, listening.
Rosaline
Then listening,
understand.
Romeo
Standing, I list to your side.
Rosaline
I would have you know my words without my having
to speak them.
Romeo
I have heard it said that mind-reading
is an art of love men must swiftly master.
Rosaline
Here is my hand on your heart, and here
I remove it: let the parable tell you
what you will not hear. I do not love you;
so end this wooing, for where I would be fair
in friendship, I must be unfair in love.
Romeo
From wooing to wounded....
Rosaline
Look not, for Tybalt
studies us from across the way, unapproving.
Go swiftly, for he approaches. Go, please,
for I would not have him as your enemy,
as Montague, he hates you with disinterest,
let him take no interest in Romeo.
Romeo
I would be no deeper sorrow to you,
so fare well, fair Rosaline.
He leaves her. Tybalt arrives. She speaks before he can.
Rosaline
Hello cousin, does this hall of peace suit you?
Tybalt
T'is a cloak concealing troubling discourse,
was that not a Montague, skulking away?
Rosaline
I have been chaptered and versed in courtesy,
and would serve my liege as I am commanded.
Tybalt
And do you find Romeo's doting courteous ?
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7
Rosaline
I hadn't noticed doting.
Tybalt
Had you not ?
Rosaline
In this troubling time, even you cousin
must turn to reconciliation. …
Tybalt
You age boldly.
Rosaline
No, I was always bold.
Tybalt
True, you were.
Rosaline
Having no blade to thrust about
and so make myself cock of this walk, I find
wisdom in wit where I fail to see it
in strutting, and so pursue diplomacy...
Tybalt
In this alleged emerging epoch of peace,
remember that houses age more slowly...
Rosaline
I would have you find peace Tybalt.
I am troubled for you...
Tybalt
Don't be...
Rosaline
I am, and will be.
Tybalt
Then I will be remembered kindly by someone...
Rosaline
Are you parting that I need concern myself
with recalling you ?
Tybalt
You cannot recall me,
for I will soon pass beyond all return.
Rosaline
You sadden me. Where are you going... Tybalt ?
Tybalt
He goes.
Within remembrance, but beyond recall.
Rosaline
That was a curious turn, for he seemed ...wistful...
Nurse ! Nurse !
Nurse
Child.
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8
Rosaline
Stop calling me child! What is Tybalt's business?
Nurse
His own, business which we would be unwise
to call ours. But come … here is Juliet; we must go.
Her nurse has gone ahead with a seamstress
to cut the muslin for the masquerade.
Rosaline
Before he left, Tybalt said I should remember him
even though he was beyond recall....
Is that not curious, what was his meaning ?
Nurse
Inquire not too deeply into his thought,
lest it take root and wake you in the night.
Rosaline
I think he was wistful, for it welled up
Nurse
Aye, maybe so, for there are depths in him:
a sorrow he cannot conceal from you,
for he ever loved you, child...
Rosaline
I am not a child.
Nurse
Aye, and now I'm wistful. This crowd, crowds me.
Let us find Juliet and be gone from this noise...
Rosaline
I was hoping to see Mercutio.
Nurse
There she is, we need to hurry home.
Juliet
Is this place not a wonder Ros? Let's live here.
Nurse
The seamstress has stitched us into her schedule,
and the fit is tight, so if you want your fancy
for the masque then we must go girls...
Juliet
All Hallows Eve approaches, and whatever
the coming masque conceals, some secret unfolds
that none in our house will yet confess,
something is closing around me, Ros,
I feel like I have escaped, and dread going back.
Nurse
Come along, let us go that we may arrive.
Rosaline
We come nurse, lead on.
Nurse
Follow in my wake,
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for we shall be pressed to dress this priestess,
or discover something for you to wear.
Rosaline
I shall wear myself, disguised as everyone
in our family.
Nurse
Now there's a design
to stump a seamstress.
Juliet
You cannot masquerade
as a metaphor unless you conceal yourself:
have you a design ?
Rosaline
Capulet heraldry,
in which all elements are sinister.
The Nurse hurries off. The two dawdle.
Juliet
Was that not Romeo Montague I saw ?
I'm not sure I would dare speak with him, he's...
Why placed you your hand upon his heart ?
Rosaline
I placed it there that he might understand
the meaning of its removal.
Juliet
And did he ?
Rosaline
He did.
Juliet
Tybalt saw, did he not?
Rosaline
I sent Romeo away lest he be harmed,
for the prince of cats was pacing like
a tethered lion
Juliet
I pity him, Tybalt,
not Romeo, he, I....
Rosaline
Why do you pity Tybalt?
Juliet
My mother...
Rosaline
I have heard rumours, but I
knew not what to believe or how to speak
of them with you.
Juliet
How am I to honour mother or father?
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10
Hor he is weak and she is wicked
How am I to think of myself ?
Rosaline
You are not her. There is some old canker
at work in her, according to my nurse.
Juliet
This masque is a pretense for something else.
My nurse will say nothing, she is in her own
remembered grief these days over the loss
of her daughter Susanna, long ago.
Rosaline
Then I will ask my nurse, She serves me truly,
and having learned their plot I will come tonight...
Juliet
Come softly then, for my father prowls the night
but has no teeth for the bone he gnaws, he retires
to his room where he soon drinks himself to sleep.
Come after the midnight bell.
Nurse
Rosanne
Rosaline! Now!
We should hurry, we will need her good will.
Rosaline and Benvolio
11
Act One, Scene Three
Back in the now quieter hall, Dante is approached by 12 year old Prince
Francesco, while his older brother Bartolomeo and Constance say their goodbyes
to various well wishers. Behind the boy is Theodorus, Francesco's bodyguard.
Dante
My lord Francesco.
Francesco
Signore Dante,
I would have a word with you if I may, for
my father, who was honoured here today,
advised me to study your writings.
Dante
By all means, my Lord
Francesco
Do you know my brother, Alboino,
perhaps you've met him: though he has been
in Sienna since your banishment began.
Dante
I have only heard of him.
Francesco
He's probably
at the Vatican, for he is a Guelph.
Dante
Yes, I have heard that he was one, my lord.
Francesco
Before he died, my father and I often walked
by the river. He read your poems to me there,
advised me that I should read all you wrote,
for he thought you unequaled in our age,
though he hated your politics.
Dante
Francesco
Dante
And I, his my lord.
May I ask you something, Signore ?
Of course.
Francesco
Does your wife not get jealous of your poems
to Beatrice, you have a lot of them.
I find that odd, I think my mother would have been
angry at my father if he was in love
with someone else.
Dante
Sometimes she's jealous,
but she knows there are many kinds of love,
including friendship...
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Francesco
I don't have many friends.
Mercutio's page, Renato was one of them.
Dante
Friendships are difficult, in difficult times.
Francesco
Was there a reason you didn't marry Beatrice?
Dante
You are unrelenting my prince, and while
I cannot say without some perjury
that I did not at first love Beatrice,
we were only nine when we met …
Francesco
I loved a girl when I was nine and, will
marry her when I am nineteen, and she agrees.
Dante
Have you ever been to the mountains, Francesco ?
Francesco
Why, will you answer me there ?
Dante
The Alps
are but a day's ride away, and I know you ride,
for I have seen you on that dappled gray...
Francesco
Yes, I have been to the Alps, Signore, now
what of mountains; Beatrice and your wife,
for you will not evade me.
Dante
That is clear my prince,
but in the mountains, is the air not of
a different nature than the air of the valley ?
It is that difference that I am, with difficulty,
attempting to make myself understood.
Francesco
You're saying that loving Beatrice is like
breathing mountain air, and loving your wife
is like breathing valley air.
Dante
That is my meaning
clearly seen. The first is a rarefied
experience that men of the valley
can only endure briefly, while the other
is our daily bread, and thankful we are
to have it. But without both, neither truth
is as clearly felt. It is that which my wife
has always understood, and why she has
seldom found cause for outrage, my lord.
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13
Francesco
I am glad she is outraged, for I wouldn't
trust a wife who never objects, Signore.
Dante
I shall have to start calling you Can Grande,
my lord, for though I have no love for your
grandfather Mastino - the mastiff - you
have …doggedness, and faithfulness in you.
Francesco
Thank you Signore,, Can Grande suits me fine.
It is not so high as a mountaintop,
but I can show you the view from the roof
if you would like to see Verona from a height
few have yet seen.
Dante
Francesco
I would like that, my lord.
Call me Can Grande as you promised.
He turns to his bodyguard.
You don't mind going back up to the roof, do you
Theodorus ?
Theodorus
Francesco
Theodorus
I have no mind to mind, my lord.
You're a funny man.
You're a funny prince, my lord.
Dante and Theodorus follow Can Grande
to Prince Bartolomeo and Lady Constance.
Francesco
Signore Dante and I will be on the roof,
discussing the future of iambic
pentameter.
Constance
I see our prodigal
has taken you over for his own, Signore.
Dante
We have an understanding, Theodorus,
Can Grande and myself...mia Signora.
Constance
Can Grande? Now there's a name great enough
for his sense of destiny, if not yet his stature.
Francesco
You fence with me Constanza, foil to your wit.
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Constance
More krumb than hilt, I think. Bartolomeo?
Prince
More flunge than parry.
Francesco
She wilts under my
Raddoppio.
Prince
.
Dante
You will find, Signore Dante, that Veronans
are like birds that sing to hear themselves sound:
words burble and crow as if from treetops;
even those not born here, like my Lady wife,
soon rhapsodize with those of us who were,
giving flight to fancies, and wings to their whims.
I have noted something of that already,
for on our way here, before the attack,
Mercutio and Renato displayed
such a love of words, that I too found myself
sounding phrases for the joy of senseless play.
Francesco
Not all have such joyful hearts here Signore,
for here approaches one who croaks her spite
whenever her mouth consents to convey
her unpleasant thoughts to our Lombard air.
Dante
And who is she, so unhappily formed ?
Prince
T'is Lady Capulet, and such jests as these
do not fit the public face of della Scala,
so leave them Francesco, for there is purpose
to her late arrival and we must keep
our tongues; discern her warded designs...
Constance
Lady Capulet, I see you have escaped
your duties and come before we are gone.
Lady C
Forgive me the hour, my lady, my lord,
for my husband's health was once more in doubt,
and I had to first ensure the attendance
of his care keepers.
Prince
He is well served I trust,
for I could send my own physician if
you require.
Francesco
I'll call him for you brother,
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15
that we might prove the nature of Capulet's
discomfort, and proving it swiftly cure
Lady Capulet's own unease.
Lady C
Ever generous
Francesco, you are quick to kindness, but
in this matter, the nature has already
been disclosed, being but too little sleep, for
my husband concerns himself with the troubles
of church and empire so thoroughly, that
he paces the night before exhaustion
claims him by dawn, but then rises worried
to begin yet another day of concern.
Francesco
Signore Dante and I were going to the roof
to see the view of Verona. Would you
care to join us Lady Capulet, for
the depths of your house can be seen from its heights.
Lady C
I have noted its view from my windows
and thought as much, but thank you my lord, for
I but come to see this hall conceived by
your father before his untimely end,
and then must go home to care for my husband.
Francesco
We shall hail you from the roof and undertake
to oversee the future of your route...
Come Signore Dante, for I promised you
the service of my arm and would not have you
fall to Lady Capulet's enchantment.
Lady C
Then you are the poet Dante, of whom
much is said and so little understood.
I am not one for reading verse, so I
have not made your literary acquaintance,
but if Lord Bartolomeo offers
you for a recitation, be certain
that I will attend the nuances of your words.
The della Scala's have caused Verona
to flourish with writers and painters and
artists of every kind, Signore.
Francesco
They do seem to get underfoot, don't they?
But come Dante, lest the lady trip over you.
Dante
It appears I must leave you my lady
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before we are known to one another.
Lady C
Until we next meet, Signore Dante.
Francesco
With your permission brother. Lady Constance. They exit.
Constance
May I show you the hall Lady Capulet ?
Lady C
That is a kindness unwarranted by my delay.
So by your leave, I will return home
to ensure the care of my husband.
Constance
You know his needs best.
Lady C
He is best served by peace.
Constance
Your care I'm sure will keep him from unease.
Lady C
Then by your leave my Lord, I will be homed.
Prince
By all means Lady Capulet, nurse your lord
as his needs require, and if I may help, ask.
Lady Capulet bows and scrapes her departure.
Constance
I would have her hung and dead for her husband's sake
if not for Verona's. Her only purpose
in coming so late was to ensure
her senses went uninjured by the crowd.
Though she also sought the leisure to study
for herself, the state of your health at the end
of a day of such exertion.
Prince
Peace love,
for her cause was as well to unruffle you
and I will not see her victorious.
Would that I had Francesco's freedom and
could insult her with veiled contempt.
Constance
And when you are gone who but Theodorus
will protect him from her and her kind ?
Prince
Alboino will protect him, as will our mother
who yet commands a dowager's weight of wrath,
before which even Lady Capulet quails.
Besides which, the boy is much beloved by Verona,
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the Lady is not.
Constance
You are too hopeful
for this world beloved: that is why you are
being taken from it.
Prince
I have the prescience
of the dying Constanza, do not fear
for the della Scalas, for we will hold power
until well after Francesco is gone.
Constance
In truth, it is for myself I most fear
my lord, for I do not know how I will live
when you no longer wake to greet me...
Prince
I have loved Verona through my love of you,
and when I am gone you will see Verona
return that love to you: you will grow wise
in her cause, and in caring for them, you
will care for me.
Constance
I have had enough
of public service for this day: let us
retire to our private quiet, so that I
might be filled with you against the day
when I am emptied.
Prince
There are considerations
that must yet be made among the Lombard League
and news to learn from Anagni, but this day
at least is past, though before we retire
I would first say our thanks to those who must
clear this aftermath.
Constance
Then let us start, for they
have much to do, and in their secret speech
await our departure so that they might
themselves go home.
Prince
The day has been long.
The two begin to walk through the hall. Friar Lorenzo appears.
Prince
Friar
Lorenzo...
Forgive me my Lord, my lady,
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18
I only sought to compare the inner
magnificence with the outer.
Prince
You know you are welcome here, Friar.
Friar
My early opposition to your father,
and this structure, was not to its creation,
only to the loss of the forest which
once grew here, for in my folly I have
wisdom only for what is green and living.
But now wood has become stone, and beauty
rises from this hallowed ground in sacred
memorial guise.
I would not disturb
you further, for the day must have been long.
Having had my glimpse, I will make my way
back to my cell, my herbs and devotions...
Prince
This move against the pope does not sit well with me.
Friar
You are a man of peace and ever have been. So,
with your permission my lady, my lord.
Lorenzo goes. They continue on their way.
Rosaline and Benvolio
19
Act Two, Scene One
Benvolio and Mercutio enter a foreboding streetscape.
Mercutio
There is an unnatural hush here now
that never was before, as if both buildings
hold their breath.
Benvolio
The hush you find unnatural
is but the sound of daily life to me.
Mercutio
I feel like some principality of darkness
has taken hold of my senses, as if it dwells
both aloft and under the stones upon which we walk;
entwined into the very bedrock...
Benvolio
Most of the ill that befalls us here
goes unspoken, except in whispers
behind our windows.
Mercutio
Is this Tybalt's work or simply the poisons
stewing in the wounds of opposing views ?
Benvolio
Here is my door.
Mercutio
A year ago, Tybalt had a heart
that was prepared to be seen, for that matter,
a year ago I had mind I could still find...
Benvolio
though not always followed...
Mercutio
True my friend;
I lost some faculty of it, that I can't restore...
Benvolio
How mean you ? Your flights of wordplay
are legendary, all know you are possessed
of an uncommon sense of what is true fancy
and what is delusion serving as reason...
Mercutio
That may have once been true, but there are now times
I cannot remember what I've have said,
I begin in jest.... end bewildered, my wordplay
falls like birds to gamesmen's slings; audiences
await conclusions I have no sense of how to reach.
My tongue falls dumb, as if spider-webbed, too
thick for speech, I stutter, and then stop, like
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20
a carriage brake shuddering: listeners
look to one another to see who thinks me sane,
but when they find that I am an ambuscade
of breaches and blades and burial stones...
the stallion rides the mare and carries me
away from all reason, and I am held hostage
to angry Mab, and her Spanish fathoms.
Benvolio
And so we again return to the untold
death of Renato, do we not? Mercutio?
The whole walk of the river wall we took, eased
not a single word from your lips, my friend.
Mercutio
I was trained in the art of the sword since childhood,
but t'is another matter to kill among killers,
to stand among the fallen, to wallow
in blood and severed limbs and spilling life.
The hues of my dreams have darkened beyond
all conception, and with Maria wed,
all desires have I lost except for that
of my soul's ease and failing that,
my own surcease...
Benvolio.
Seek ye the friar my friend.
Mercutio
And how is Lorenzo, is he yet well?
I saw him in the piazza, by the cemetery...
Benvolio
Go to him, Mercutio, for you need sleep.
Mercutio
I tell you this in confidence Benvolio,
as told to me by the Duke since my return:
Tybalt, who was once my friend in all things
may be Sciarra Colonna's, and his purpose
insurrection...and I am placed in his path
to quicken my unlikely resurrection.
Benvolio
It may not be my place to question the wisdom
of princes, Mercutio, but your kinsman
weighs you too lightly to have sent you back
among us for such a purpose as Tybalt,
in this distress that you already endure.
The Friar will be within his gardens
where they overlook the River Adige,
I will bring Romeo to you there...
Rosaline and Benvolio
21
Enter the Nurse (Lucia) and Rosaline.
Mercutio
Who is this who approaches, she seems
familiar, and yet, it is as if a year
has grown a woman from a girl, and I
cannot recall the child in seeing her
now in bloom... Come greet her with me …
Benvolio
T'is madness for me to walk Capulet stones...
Mercutio
All stones in Verona are della Scala,
so I shall scale my own blood's ladder.
Lucia,
I know your charge only by your demeanor,
the year has failed to daunt or mark you,
even while growing fair Rosaline.
Rosaline
I was hoping I would see you. Though this
I never hoped: you brave the street, Benvolio.
Nurse
Bravery is a fool's game to play here.
Mercutio
What of you Rosaline?
Rosaline
Are you well, sir?
When did you last sleep?
Mercutio
Life is a well Ros,
whose waters cure sleep.
Rosaline
T'is Renato's death...
it haunts you as it haunts us all, he was gentle...
Nurse
We have no time for this Rosaline. Ros!
Rosaline
He was once a walking fountain, a living joy.
Benvolio
He has promised to go to the Friar.
Mercutio
If I have sown joy, then I reap it now.
The hope for which my life is now being poured
is doubly refreshed, by Rosaline and Lucia.
Nurse
Get some sleep man, these aren't streets for delirium,
by day or by night. Come Rosaline, let us
be wisdom for him, bid him adieu ere
Rosaline and Benvolio
22
Benvolio catches his bravado
and courage makes mourners of us all.
Mercutio
You are peace to me, dear to my own nurse,
who stands now beyond the grave and there...now
she calls to you: list: where is that tiramisù dish
I lent you long ago. ASIDE T'was me who broke it.
Nurse
You are unwell, son, will you have me scold
our prince to see you recover your senses?
Mercutio
Perhaps it is a faery whisper, but
I have heard there is a masque tomorrow,
surely the Capulets will desire me here.
Nurse
T'is not my place to send invitations
for a Lord and Lady I do not serve.
Rosaline
They plot against Juliet, Benvolio.
Nurse
Be ruled by me Ros.
Rosaline
I would defend my own loves
whatever cost to myself…
Nurse
I am your parent's voice,
your safety is dear to us.
Mercutio
I am the price
to be paid for these streets, keep your counsel
and your security, all will be known
soon enough.
Rosaline
And what say you Benvolio?
Nurse
...this is reckless...
Benvolio
Make no more declarations to the street Rosaline,
and if you must greet me every morning,
do it as you once did as a girl, hidden
in the cypress of your courtyard where
only I could see...
Nurse
Rosaline
There, be advised, come inside.
My aunt and uncle have a suitor for Juliet.
Rosaline and Benvolio
23
Do either of you know him, his name is Paris,
and I mistrust the meaning of that name
in such times as these.
Nurse
May God have mercy
on us all Rosaline, for you have just grown
into full maturity, and will now learn
what becomes of those who speak truth
into a world of lies.
Mercutio
Say you truly ? Lucia?
Capulet would marry his fortunes to
my second cousin?
Rosaline
What cousin? Paris?
Mercutio
Son of a daughter of my grandfather,
Mastino.
Rosaline
Paris is Mastino's grandson?
By what mother?
Mercutio
A childhood friend of Lady Capulets'.
Nurse
It unravels the mind the more I dwell
on its import.
Mercutio
A daughter not of my grandmother
yet recognized by him, and so by the church...
Benvolio
And so an heir to Verona?
Mercutio
Adrianna,
she was seven when Mastino was murdered,
so the old dowager sent her and her mother
to Rome, the mother died, she was raised by nuns,
then married a son of Sciarra Colonna's.
Nurse
She died in childbirth. Lady Capulet
lays her friend's death at the foot of della Scala
and is the root of her emnity.
Benvolio
Why is he called Paris?
Mercutio
He was sent to study
in the newly created university
Rosaline and Benvolio
24
in France, then returned home where he became
known by the city.
Rosaline
And now Capulet
wants to make Juliet the womb in which
to grow the overthrow of della Scala?
Benvolio
T'is Tybalt's bane whose hands have woven
these strands to her designs...
Rosaline
Poor Juliet,
who yet plays in the gardens within,
dreaming of rescue from no more than boredom.
And knowing now the truth of Tybalt's fall
as the prince of cats who kills in the night,
my own house has become my enemy.
I would have an ally among my neighbours.
Benvolio, would you become such for me,
Capulet though I am.
Benvolio
By all who love me,
I will serve you, Rosaline.
Mercutio
Well said you both.
Nurse
We must now retreat before Tybalt comes
with Paris, whom he has gone to meet...
Rosaline
Then all is said, the rest is doing.
My hope is in you two, but my allegiance
is to Juliet: she must learn that her mother
contrives to make her the coin of this cause.
So forgive me Nurse, but the hour of my age
is upon me... and I must rise to meet it.
Nurse
You will be consigned to convent silence
unless the rumours now starting within
are countered by some commonplace, and
Juliet will hear nothing at all from you
until she is well wed, and swollen with their purpose.
Rosaline
Then God speed you both, for I must now learn
to squeeze myself into a false world like into
an old dress favoured by my nurse because
it reminds her of when I bore no resemblance
to Venus de Milo.
Rosaline and Benvolio
25
Nurse
Rosaline
That dress still fits, child!
Well now at least we have a commonplace
that we may enter the house debating.
She leads the Nurse inside.
Mercutio
What times are these Benvolio, when the hubris
that sets a tragedy in motion is the pride
that four people take in the simple cause
of decency ? But I will at least believe
that no stars of fate rule what is to follow.
The love surpassing all understanding.
has prepared a bed within time for me...
after which, I will not sleep again,
until I become new earth turned by worms,
within which, children are taught to garden
'neath ruined towers and crumbling ramparts.
Just as Mercutio begins to leave, Tybalt enters from the Piazza.
Benvolio
Sleep not yet Mercutio, for Tybalt approaches.
Mercutio
Without his Parisian suitor.
Benvolio
Say nothing of that for Rosaline's sake.
Mercutio
We are well met Tybalt, for I...
Tybalt
I have business within and so must defer...
Mercutio
Without business within, what business
would men as weary as us, have old friend ?
Tybalt
None of your business.
Mercutio
You whet your wit on me.
Tybalt
T'is not a time for delay, so I go.
Mercutio
I would fish for your company for the ball
to be held here tomorrow evening.
Tybalt
A delayed guest, swept up in these times, will cause
the masque to arrive a day later than planned.
Rosaline and Benvolio
26
Mercutio
I hear the roads towards France are in discord.
Tybalt
News traveled before him: Pope Boniface
has been rescued from the Colonnas.
The vicar has returned to the Vatican,
unharmed, though harmed enough....
Mercutio
Now there is news well and quickly told.
Tybalt
Hence my need to convey it to my uncle.
Mercutio
Perhaps a new peace will put an end to warring.
Tybalt
You have always been more hopeful than I.
Mercutio
On that, I would no longer wager my own life,
let alone your's, especially since your heart
has been held captive since before I parted.
Tybalt
It is unwise to speak to me of that...
Mercutio
I have yet the recall of the hour in which I watched
your hurt unfold; it grieves me to see ...
Tybalt
What you render well-meaning I will rend,
if you persist in this cure for my sorrows.
Mercutio
Then more sorrow is mine...
Tybalt
Yes, I see its writing
on your face, people think that it's easy to kill.
Mercutio
What is ahead need not be, if we turn aside.
Tybalt
The crop has been plowed into the field, and
the past will serve our future only as dung might.
Mercutio
By all that is holy, forgive her and live !
Forgive yourself and be restored to yourself !
Tybalt constrains his fury, and masters it.
Tybalt
As for you, Benvolio Montague,
let me hear no rumour of this encounter.
He enters the Capulet fortress.
Rosaline and Benvolio
27
Benvolio
You risk too much Mercutio, he is lost...
Mercutio
Risk ? He was my friend, Benvolio. And I
must kill him or be killed, and for what ?
These two houses? I would tear down these walls
with my hands if I thought I could restore him.
So if he is lost, then I will soon be lost with him.
Benvolio
If this is prophecy Mercutio,
I am numb with the horror of your vision...
Command me as you will, for I will serve you
with my death if need be.
Mercutio
Serve me better
with your life by serving Rosaline.
And now I must find sleep, or dream of waking.
Benvolio goes into his house.
Lady Capulet approaches with Juliet and their bodyguard, who remain discretely separate.
Mercutio
My Lady Capulet. But can this be Juliet ?
Juliet
I not only can be, I am. You look weary
Mercutio
Tybalt and I chanced to meet moments ago.
Lady C
He broods too much... I would see him restored...
Mercutio
Which is why he invited me to your masque.
Lady C
By all means, come and be levity for him...
Mercutio
Have you a theme upon which I should dress ?
Lady C
Being unequal to your imaginings
I would not constrain you with my fancies.
Mercutio
Service to the sword has made me a more
prosaic man; authority conforms me.
Lady C
Perhaps in pitting yourself against Tybalt's gloom
you both might find a new balance of mind.
Come as you will, and we will see you then.
Juliet...
Mercutio
Tybalt bid me come the day after,
saying that the guest of honour, my cousin Paris,
Rosaline and Benvolio
28
was delayed in Romagna, and would not reach
Verona until tomorrow evening.
Lady C
Paris coming here ? It must be a surprise
of my husband's, for I knew Paris' mother
in my own girlhood before she was lost
to the needs of empire. I never met the son,
but Lord Capulet did once; perhaps that
is the explanation we both seek.
Juliet
I know nothing of this man or his tale,
or of you losing your childhood friend mother,
And how can this Paris be cousin to Mercutio ?
Mercutio
Fear not Juliet, curiousity
and necessity will marry and so produce
an heir to answer your search.
Lady C
I all but forgot,
Francesco is on the roof of the new merchant's hall,
overspying us and the rest of Verona.
She turns and waves up the street.
Get some sleep Mercutio, you look like a man
who would topple before the first ill wind.
Juliet
Perhaps we could meet to speak of Dante
before the ball Mercutio, for I would hear
of your adventures and what became of Renato,
who fell, I hear, in both your defenses,
though you redeemed his death, with those of your enemies.
Mercutio
Your mother is wise: I am tottering
for lack of sleep. I must seek some bed.
They part.
Act Two, Scene Two
On the roof of the merchant's hall.
Francesco is laughing.
Francesco
Lady Capulet is not pleased with this height,
but I suspect it will become my delight.
Dante
She seems awash with dark purposes, my lord.
Francesco
If I am a large dog, she is a female one.
Rosaline and Benvolio
29
But divided houses fall and she has sundered
her own: one day it will collapse on her
and Lady Capulet perish in a yelp.
Dante
The law of reaping and sowing moves slowly
at times, and then enacts like a noose...
Francesco
Perhaps you can help me with something Signore:
Theodorus was my father's bodyguard.
I inherited his service, and though I
keep trying to free him to his own,
he keeps giving himself back.
Dante
Then you should
be thankful my prince, for service freely
rendered is service truthfully given.
Francesco
Maybe so, but does it seem right to you
that a man my father's age should have no life
but the one he lives in service to a boy?
Dante
This truly troubles you my lord ?
Francesco
Yes.
It troubles me because I have to be
worthy of his devotion, and I'm not sure
I'm worth what it costs him.
Dante
I assume he serves
because service gives meaning to his life.
Is that not true Theodorus?
Theodorus
I first served because on his deathbed his father
asked it of me, so I serve because he is
his father's son, but I also serve because
the della Scala cause is my cause, and I
know no better way of serving that, than
to serve where I am most needed, preserving
its future.
Francesco
Theodorus
Francesco
But what if I fail you Theodorus ?
You will not fail my prince.
How can you know that ?
Rosaline and Benvolio
30
Theodorus
I know because you would prefer me free,
therefor, you would have me serve what I myself
hold true, and being free to serve truth, I
serve you my prince.
Francesco
You see what I mean
Signore Dante, his life is too priceless
for me to risk by having him serve me.
Dante
And yet you both declare service to me.
Francesco
That's different.
Dante
How is it different ?
Francesco
Because it is your dilemma, not mine.
There is one thing more I would ask you, Signore:
the death of Renato is a tale untold,
and Renato was a boyhood friend of mine.
Dante
He died bravely my lord.
Francesco
He lived bravely.
T'is not bravery or the want of it that concerns me.
You are both cautious in this matter; and
where other men would elaborate, both of you
curtail every telling.
Dante
I cannot speak
for your cousin my lord, I myself do not
revel in words of slaughter, and say only
what is due to express Renato's honour.
Francesco
That is not what I'm asking.
Dante
No my prince, it is not.
But I think the tale is Mercutio's to tell,
so of the whole, all I would recount,
is Renato's courage and your kinsman's prowess:
both preserved me, and I am in their debt.
Francesco
Then why does Mercutio walk like a man - both
unable to wake, and unable to sleep?
Dante
He grieves my lord: for your friend, for himself,
for those he slew, and the way in which he slew them.
Rosaline and Benvolio
31
Francesco
It was a battle was it not, what is there
to grieve about in the cause of victory ?
Dante
T'is the cause of glory that gives men the most
to grieve about, for we are not made for
such unyielding judgments as killing.
We are made in need of one another,
we require communion with others. To slay,
when one has never slain before, severs us
from our own humanity, and some men
never bridge that crossing again, while others
need only rest and confession to accept
how they might thereafter live with themselves.
Francesco
And have you killed ?
Dante
At the Battle of Campaldino,
I served in the cavalry.
Francesco
What about you Theodorus ?
I know you are battle-forged; do you remember
the first man you killed and how you felt?
Theodorus
I do my lord. And make my peace with it
each day, as I can.
Francesco
I urged Renato
on Mercutio and my brother in your cause...
Dante
Do not keep yourself from weeping for lost friends,
and when you have fully wept, you should then
claim his joy as your own. The darkness
is always undone by rekindled light.
Francesco
I have need of privacy Signore, but
I will remain here, that my sorrows might merge
with those of all Verona. Go with him Theodorus.
Theodorus
I will seek some nearby privacy
of my own, my lord, but will not leave you.
Dante and the bodyguard move away.
Dante
Theodorus
Ward him well Theodorus.
The danger of this kind of guardianship
Rosaline and Benvolio
32
is the vigil against the commonplace.
Poetry is not my daily bread, signore,
but the words of your speech are knowing,
and where I did not understand my Prince's need
to provide you with asylum, and so
begrudged you the wound of Renato's loss
and of Mercutio's distress, I see
once more, that my Lord's wisdom is deeper
and more subtle than my own.
I will go
no further from the boy than this.
Dante
His father was wise to entrust him to you.
Theodorus
Francesco weeps.
Dante leaves the guard to his own grief.
Act Two, Scene Three
In the Friar's cell candles burn.
Mercutio
Friar
Friar ?
Mercutio ? Come in, come in.
Mercutio
T'is late. Do I disturb you ?
Friar
The world disturbs me,
but you are as welcome as ever.
Mercutio
You are occupied
with some study, are you not ?
Friar
T'is my life's preoccupation to consider
the nature of plants, but my redemption
is to be of service when I am required.
Blessed in my solitude, I am twice blessed
by your presence. You look weary son, sit,
please, for while I cannot say I know the cause
of your distress, rumour reaches even me.
Mercutio
The duke has assigned me another page
for my new duties, but I send him on errands;
take up his service with pointless endeavors.
Friar
Even a man on a pointless endeavour
Rosaline and Benvolio
33
can come to harm, so would it not be
better to leave his destiny with God,
where it has always been old friend?
No one leaves this world before their time: t'was
ever thus, and ever will be, be they emperor,
pope, duke or page, friar, farmer or child.
Mercutio
Then let me speak to the truth before me.
When they fell upon us, Dante, Renato
and I, I lost all sense of myself, except
my capacity to fuel my training
with my rage, and so drove into their midst
only to find I had cut myself off
from Dante - whom I was there to protect.
They turned from me, but for one opponent,
and so five men faced Dante and Renato.
He withstood their brunt a moment and then fell
to their greater force, before I broke their rearguard.
If not for Dante's own horse, he would also
have fallen before the remaining two
attackers turned to meet me forcing myself
back to Renato's dying side, and to Dante.
I cannot yet bring myself to trace my path
through that fight foe by foe, I simply slew
until all had fallen, then ran each through
to ensure their deaths.
When it was over,
I trembled so much I could not stand, and so
fell in the midst of my slaughtered.
Dante searched for life and then, encountering
Renato among the dead, withdrew him
from the corpses and built a cairn of stone
over him while I sat before the slain.
The poet brought water from the river and
poured it on me, which had the effect
of altering my stupour. He told me
to build a cairn over the dead, and then
helped me up, but went to scout the road while I
created their cairn.
He returned and we remounted.
then rode in a silence I could not break ...
Friar
And you have not slept in the two days since.
Mercutio
At first it seemed that I was asleep, for I was
Rosaline and Benvolio
34
transposed into a world that accompanies this one
but meets it only on the border of comprehending.
I have grown ever wearier, and so
staggered to your door, in the hopes you would know
a cure...
Friar
Dante was wise to have you bury,
under stone, those who died by your hand.
I was not always a Franciscan: when young
I was a forester in Tuscany, and
loved the woods and all the life that is in them.
But war came and I marched in a contingent
of Guelphs, built bridges and defenses, until
we came upon Mastino della Scala
just after he had been declared podesta.
We were overrun, my weapon was my axe,
I killed five men with it, all Veronans.
The war ended soon after, and I returned home,
But the axe was no longer a tool. So I
wandered... eventually came to Verona.
It was here, I became a Franciscan,
and in this cell I have lived now more than
thirty years. I have traced the faces of those
I slew; still see their likeness in man and child,
in woman and girl, unknowingly bereft,
by me, of their fathers, sons and siblings.
My joy in the secrets of the forests
has returned to me, deepened, though I have not
felled a tree since just before that battle.
My place now, is to be of service where
and when the need for healing is greatest.
Mercutio
I have never heard this tale, Lorenzo.
Friar
Only the Prince knows it.
Mercutio
You do me honour Friar.
Friar
T'is not your honour but your hurt I seek to serve.
Mercutio
The meaning of your tale is clear: healing
is your salvation, and this humble home
has become a palliative... Exhaustion
overtakes me.
Then fold yourself into
Friar
Rosaline and Benvolio
35
those blankets and sleep, for I require
little myself these days, I'll walk the woods
while you rest.
Mercutio
You are god-sent. Friar.
Friar
One would hope as much could be said of all friars.
Mercutio
T'is enough Lorenzo, that here in Verona,
it can be said of you..
Friar
I will take myself
into the trees by the river; let you rest.
He rises and goes.
Act Two, Scene Four
In the dark of Capulet's house.
Rosaline
I have never been afraid in my home.
I have always walked freely where
Benvolio says he dares not enter,
and yet here I am, having to dare this dark
because I fear what my House has become.
I have declared myself a woman, and yet
I am driven back into my childhood
by the shades of things I know by daylight
chairs and sculptures...
My world overturns here,
for everything I normally ignore
I now dread to meet lest they thwart my need
to warn Juliet...
O cousin what a snare
they have set for you, for even if you escape,
where would you go, and how would you get there ?
The world beyond this dark night's window glass...
how foreign her life would become if she
could never again stand here with me
amusing ourselves with our commentaries
on those who walk the cobblestones below...
Who am I to advise her to flee her parent's desires ?
Flee our childhood, that only this past year shrank
into the prison of prolonged boredom.
Who am I to know if this Paris is
unworthy of her, or conspires with France...
Rosaline and Benvolio
36
A convent would take her !
That is her best course: to find refuge there
and for a time remain.
I can advise that.
Softly Rosaline, softly. T'is your own fear
that keeps you here. Move, keep walking: the dark
is only dark until the next window,
and then the hallway to their rooms begins.
You use this passage every day without pause,
but softly, softly, old wood creaks warnings
to wake the dogs that will then wake the living.
What is that ahead ? Candlelight! Someone comes.
How did darkness become my ally? It stops:
t'is a candle, but does not itself appear.
Who holds it? What room are they near? Softly,
softly, Rosaline. This is no more than a game
of hide and seek and I the only player.
But should I seek or should I further hide?
T'is not a game, but the stakes of Juliet's life.
T'is Lord Capulet's library, and that, his voice.
But who holds the light? Who replies? A woman.
T'is Lady Capulet. I have become
an unwilling witness to their talk, for I
cannot pass and dare not return. I should
stop my ears for I need no further cause of dread...
They might speak of Paris and of Juliet.
I must move closer; hear their designs more clearly …
In the library Lady Capulet speaks to her husband.
Lady C
I would speak with you my Lord.
Capulet
How nice for me.
Lady C
You have been in contact with Sciarra, and
asked Paris to come. Or so Mercutio claims.
I assume you asked him here in the hope
that Paris will see in Juliet and Capulet
the foundation of his own claim to Verona
through Mastino and long lost Adrianna.
Capulet
How did Mercutio discover it ?
Lady C
I don't care how he learned the news, my lord,
I've come to learn what madness you've plunged into...
The madness of cuckoldry, the dementia
that comes with every friend's sadness for me,
Capulet
Rosaline and Benvolio
37
with every enemy's smirk, that comes
every time I see Tybalt dreaming
of replacing me in my own house so that
he might regain you in our bed. It comes
from sinking into darkness, driven still deeper
by every contemptuous word that falls
from your vile lips. But it is also a madness
that ended in resolve, in a purpose
that grew into a design...
Lady C
You will plunge
this house into Bartolomeo's hands
and he will burn us to the ground.
Capulet
The Duke is dying,
and when he is dead, Alboino will rule,
but Alboino is a Guelph in the most foolish time
to be one, church and empire are passing
to the French, and I mean to pass my house
through the falling della Scala and so
survive the collapse of an unwieldy age.
Lady C
You play a dangerous game wildly, sir.
Capulet
Part of my new resolve circles around
how much of your contempt I am willing to endure,
so be forewarned. the whole of Verona knows
that I have cause to put you out, and you yourself
ensured they knew it. It is not me, but you, mia moglia,
who threatens the House of Capulet.
And I will tolerate that no longer, lady.
Yet my resolve, is even colder than that,
for I would keep this house intact, so that Paris
will come here, and find a united cause
around which he might yet consider
a strategic move to the home of his mother.
Lady C
You would have me on a leash, and force
my pride to its knees for all Verona to see.
Capulet
I would have you dead if I did not need you,
but in needing you, I recognize my weakness,
and where that lingers are still other needs
I refuse to name, and dare not consider.
But if you raise one vowel against those needs,
I'll eviscerate you where you stand, mia signore.
Rosaline and Benvolio
38
Lady C
Where was this resolve when I needed
a husband willing to grasp his destiny.
What became of the man I married ? Why did I
turn to Tybalt, if not because he
resembled you in your youth, and vigour?
Capulet
Do not push his name into my wound again,
or I will have you both dead and the city
celebrating me coming to my senses.
Lady C
Then let me speak to the design on which
your hope is founded, leaving aside the chance
that Paris will even consider Juliet.
If the Duke is dying, perhaps we can
circumvent Alboino, who might be ripe
for toppling, but the boy is another matter.
Francesco is much beloved by the people:
he is also as cunning as old Mastino.
Paris has no chance of becoming podesta
of this city as long as Francesco lives.
Capulet
The boy must die, and we know who must kill him.
Lady C
You think because Tybalt's shadow has begun
to lay itself across Verona that
he can be sacrificed in such a way
as to leave him dead, and Capulet intact?
I think you're wrong. Besides which, he's no fool,
and will not serve you into suicide.
Capulet
You don't even see what you've done to him,
do you ? What he has become, what he is
willing to do for you, how eager he is
to be free of you, free of your becco.
Lady C
I will not ask him to kill Francesco,
do not ask me to ask him; he is yet
your sister's son, and you will split this house
if you sacrifice him in this way, sir.
Capulet
Then Paris cannot become Alboino's heir.
Lady C
Consider this, for it has circled me all day:
at the merchant hall, Francesco was with
the poet, Dante: they seemed like father and son,
Rosaline and Benvolio
39
so close had they so quickly become...
Capulet
And he is a man with enemies of his own...
Lady C
Who could move against him in a time and place
in which the boy would not escape attack,
and so die an accidental death.
Capulet
Then that is how Francesco shall die. But
understand this, if you betray me again
I will humble you in public my Lady,
leave you naked outside a bordello.
Lady C
Preserve your resolve my lord, for upon
your conviction hangs the destiny
of this house: sustain the lordship of your will;
you will have no cause to doubt my devotion.
Capulet
Then leave me, for the only part of my resolve
that is threatened is that which sustains my
necessary distance from your wanton flesh.
Lady C
For as long as your mastery holds, my bed
will always be your bed, and my need will be
your need, fulfilled in every desire you have.
Capulet
Go my lady, lest I take you where you stand,
and prove your words to you, by your body's truth.
Lady C
Prove them, for this is the martial spirit
you carried about you when we were first wed,
when I learned the ways of a wanton in your bed.
Capulet
I cannot touch you yet, though I burn to scorch you,
and so purify a love I once adored.
Lady C
I would be the wife of your youth again.
Capulet
Go to bed my lady, consider the truth
of your repentance, for if it is false
it would be better for you to vanish
before dawn. than to wound me further...
Lady C
I will break my fast with you, my lord,
that all the household might see our new day.
Rosaline and Benvolio
40
Capulet
I'll give thought to poetic death for Dante;
and who among his enemies, would serve us best.
Lady C
On that I will defer to your knowledge
of those beyond Verona. My only thought
is that patience in this is a virtue,
for his untimely death cannot coincide with
the arrival of Paris, but must be seen
to be a consequence of an opportunity
that arose after the natural death
of the Duke, some confusion that occurs
during the transfer of power to Alboino.
Perhaps it could even be arranged for it
to appear to have been Alboino's hand
that moved against the poet on behalf
of Black Guelphs in Florence, a plot that went awry
and so also caused the death of Francesco.
Capulet
It shall be as you say my lady, goodnight...
Lady
I ask only one boon for myself, my lord.
Capulet
And what boon is that ?
Lady
Take no revenge on Tybalt, for the sin is mine.
Capulet
I will spare him for my sister's sake, but
speak no more of him to me. Now get out.
Lady C
Good night my lord.
She goes and vanishes the way she came with her candlelight.
Capulet blows out his own light and enters an adjacent, unseen room.
Rosaline retreats from her hiding place.
Rosaline
I would drain my veins of Capulet blood
if I could remove the stain of family
left by such as these !
How can I carry news
of Paris to Juliet now, without
bearing all this newly heard horror with me?
O Benvolio... dare this house, and so
help me now, for my lord and lady mean
to murder Francesco... I cannot go to Juliet,
I must find some ally, I cannot think.
Go softly Rosaline but go swiftly.
Rosaline and Benvolio
41
She hurries back the way she came.
Tybalt steps out of the darkness after she goes.
Tybalt
He goes.
Bold Rosaline. I will be your ally,
for I will bring this house down around us all,
and so serve you both.
As for you my wanton,
you have betrayed me for the last time, even
as you think you've saved me. I am lost, losing you.
Rosaline and Benvolio
42
Act Three, Scene One
Night. The home of the Montagues. Benvolio watches from a window.
Benvolio
Where are you cousin ? No one has spoken to
or seen you since morning, when you were talking
to Rosaline.
Where are you sweet Ros, where
in that dark house is your room, your warmth, your light?
I have lived across from you my whole life;
but know where no one sleeps inside those walls.
What if Tybalt is out there, and heartsick Romeo
has been skewered in the forest, his body now
tumbling down the bed of the Adige
only to wedge, then swell like a boulder
during the height of tomorrow's sun?
If I had Rosaline's courage I'd be out there
searching for him, instead of cowering
behind leaded glass, talking to myself.
But what of the word I gave to Mercutio?
Do I fail Romeo to protect Rosaline?
Do I stay safe, to serve her another day?
Rosaline... there she is again on my lips,
never having left, imprinted by a kiss
blown across this street from a tree-topped girl:
ten years of teasing without ever speaking.
O Rosaline, Rosaline, Rosaline;
I have loved you since I was seven.
And on the street today, your words were for me,
face to face; the sober echo of the girl's glee
ringing from the cypress, as if these walls
and stone towers were sand castles walked through by you,
steps you took in the name of Verona, for me.
She would not use a promise to Mercutio
to shirk from her conscience, so surely I
can dare the darkness in her name, in the cause
of Romeo, whom she also names her friend.
You know you won't be able to live with
failing him, so go in her name. And go now.
He leaves the house..
Rosaline and Benvolio
43
Act Three, Scene Two
The Friar is on the Streets, walking in the dark, singing:
The river is born in the mountains
born out of ice-melt from peaks
from rains and runoff and springs
that meander the meadows in creeks.
The river forms in the mountains,
forms out of riv'lets and streams
that gather together in cascades
filling the air with our dreams:
for we are the A-dig-e's children
we rage, we roar; we careen,
our lives are turmoil and tumult
before we Veronans are weaned.
yes we are the A-dig-e's children
we rage, we roar; we careen,
our lives are turmoil and tumult
before we Veronan's are weaned.
In the piazza Benvolio stops to listen,
he realizes someone is nearby, and draws his sword.
Benvolio
I am Benvolio Montague, and...
I am on these streets in peace, if you serve
the same cause as I... Rosaline?
She steps out the shadows.
What divine intercession brings you here,
for it was your name and your example
that gave me courage to dare these streets!
Rosaline
Do not sheath your blade, but rather let me
come within its defense, for there are terrors
that I cannot face, and I would know the comfort
of your protection.
Benvolio
You want my protection?
That we should be so well met, so soon
after my conversation with myself
at my window, roused by your bravery,
worried as I was for Romeo's welfare,
but why are you here, what drives you outside?
Rosaline
You were thinking of me? I inspired you
to risk the night to search for Romeo?
He exits into the forest
Rosaline and Benvolio
44
Benvolio
Rosaline
Ah... is he why you have come out also?
you love him...?
No..
Benvolio
Oh.
Rosaline
So...
You said you came out inspired by me?
Benvolio
Yes. And here you are.
Rosaline
That is odd.
Benvolio
It is. Yes.
Rosaline
Boldness got me out, but at this corner, I quaked.
Benvolio
I will serve whatever purpose you require.
But what drove you to these streets, what danger
lurks, that I must be wary for both our sakes ?
Rosaline
I know not where to run, or how to hide, for ...
it is my own kin that plans the ruin
of della Scala, and the peace of Verona.
Benvolio
Come, this is a poor place for concealment,
but we must move with stealth and quiet lest
the sentries find us: I would not have them think
immodestly of you, nor ribald of me,
and nor would I have them learn your tale
before I can weigh its meaning. I will ward you.
Though my thoughts still stray to missing Romeo.
Rosaline
I am strong again, so lead and I will follow,
I have had a prayer answered, my heart
has manifested Benvolio, you,
you who I have loved since I was a girl.
Benvolio
We linger in this sacred time and place,
though your troubles, and my search, await us.
Rosaline
I think we need to find Mercutio.
Benvolio
I earlier sent him to seek aid from the Friar:
he may yet be there, but if not, Lorenzo
Rosaline and Benvolio
45
will hear your tale with me, and advise us
on what course we should then take with it...
Perhaps we will discover Romeo there.
They leave the piazza and are followed by Tybalt in the darkness.
Act Three, Scene Three
In the dark of the woods, partly lit by moonlight through clouds.
Romeo
What is this apparition approaching ?
T'is Rosaline and Benvolio !
Loved and cousin ! Why are they together
- in the middle of the night - in these woods, now?
Here is the reason she does not love me then.
Benvolio said nothing of these feelings.
Do they elope, what is their haste inside the wood ?
They are followed. Tybalt gives chase, but
as ever to the unsuspecting,
he travels swiftly and with stealth. Romeo,
you cannot allow him a sudden greeting:
gird yourself, for love has other faces,
these are friends of your heart, Tybalt be damned.
Yet I cannot call out: that would bring the guard
and so end their hopes.
The cat gains on them,
Romeo sets off, and succeeds in surprising Tybalt, crashing into
him, the noises of which cause Benvolio and Rosaline to turn around.
Benvolio
Rosaline
What trouble is this ?
Two men.
Benvolio
Benvolio races to the melee, Rosaline follows.
Defend yourself Romeo.
Romeo
One is Romeo.
I was defending you.
Tybalt
Call off your dogs Rosaline, for I come in peace
and for this brief second. will hold my fury
though it consume my veins and turn my blood
to ashes with its heat. Never touch me again, boy.
Rosaline
Leave him room by all that is holy Romeo,
Rosaline and Benvolio
46
for you are no match for him in any mood.
This isn't what it seems, Tybalt this is...
Tybalt
...flight from Lord and Lady Capulet,
this is fear and dread and panic, this is
what comes from wandering the halls in the dark
and learning that your blood is kin to treason.
Rosaline
I will listen, but only if all swords are sheathed...
Tybalt
Your companions must also make steps of retreat
ere I sheath both rage and sword.
Rosaline
Let it be so,
Benvolio. Romeo, please, retreat and sheath.
Romeo
This is all mystery to me, but if I
must dock my sword, believe me when I say
I have no fear of standing further from him.
He steps back and sheaths his sword.
Benvolio
If you desire it Rosaline, I will do it,
but know this Tybalt, if you harm her, I will return
from the dead to see you in hell with me.
Tybalt
You may see me dead, but whatever hells
might await your petty sins, they are nothing
to the deeper pits that await me there.
Benvolio
Even so, do not dare harm her, I beg you.
He withdraws a few feet and sheaths his sword.
Tybalt sheaths his.
Rosaline
Your demands are met. Now speak or go.
Tybalt
I was in the hall cousin, heard what you heard,
learned what you learned. I am your ally here...
Rosaline
You were there?
Tybalt
I am to be used by both;
but I will tear their lies down around them.
Rosaline
We seek Mercutio, Tybalt. Together
we could take this conspiracy to the Prince.
Rosaline and Benvolio
47
Tybalt
You overestimate the value of what
you have heard.
Rosaline
I think Bartolommeo
will find our news of their designs worthwhile:
perhaps in serving darkness for so long
you are the one who underestimates.
Tybalt
It might seem so to you, who knows so little
of the workings of the world, or of how power
and authority are maintained
in civil society, but these are the facts:
what you heard is hearsay, what you say is not
evidence of actions taken, your flight,
embarked in fear and in need for warning
serves no purpose, except to warn Capulet
that you have turned on his house. And who then
will protect the nurse who will soon know you've fled,
the laggard watchman who let you leave; who
will protect your family ? Who Rosaline?
This will not decapitate the hydra head
that rules our House, for believe me cousin,
their allies among the Ghibellines, will not
allow della Scala to remove them
on your evidence.
Rosaline
But he could on yours.
Tybalt
I will not give evidence against our house.
Rosaline
In plotting to bring Paris to Verona
you have proof that Capulet is France's tool.
Tybalt
Paris Colonna is an heir of Mastino's
and has never been forbidden from here:
Lady Capulet was the childhood friend
of his mother, Adrianna: she's never
met the son, where is the crime there ? All Verona
will know he is here. Your stories give way
to a conception of what could occur,
but who are the proposed killers; where is
the conspiracy, where is the nest that can be
gathered up ? Nowhere, for it does not yet exist.
You act too soon and are driven by fear, not sense.
Romeo
Two guards near, I think, they must have heard us.
Rosaline and Benvolio
48
Tybalt
So here it is cousin, you must decide, for we
must disperse if we are to save more than you.
Rosaline
I thought you were beyond recall, Tybalt
Tybalt
You alone remember me aright, who else would I serve?
The guards come Rosaline.
Rosaline
How can I trust you ?
Tybalt
Your friends yet live.
Benvolio
Vanish with stealth, we will lead the guards away.
Tybalt
Come cousin. We must go.
Rosaline
God speed you both.
She and Tybalt go.
Romeo
Here's a tale and a half.
Benvolio
Now's not the time for its telling.
I came out to find you, and having done so,
let us part again in silence Romeo, we'll
leave the tale of Rosaline and the tackling
of Tybalt in the night, to another time.
Romeo
I go this way.
Benvolio
Then I go that.
Romeo
Benvolio
You love my love.
My love was first, and always. Go, for I am gone.
He sets off.
Romeo
O Rosaline, I am again undone:
for Benvolio is right, and true, and I,
am the younger, to the two of you.
Romeo leaves a different way.
Rosaline and Benvolio
49
Act Three, Scene Three
Enter two soldiers in the woods.
Antonio
List ! Hear the sound of running, there and there ?
Paoli
I hear the river running where it runs
Antonio
This is where they were, I can smell them yet.
Paoli
Smell them can you ?
Antonio
Aye, I have the gift.
Paoli
I forgot, your grandmother was cook
to Mastino, and your father the child
of the mastiff.
Antonio
A tale true each time told:
I am kinsman unremoved from ducal blood.
Paoli
You are kinsman only because the old dog
was slow to remove himself from your nonna.
Antonio
No matter how you reduce it, Paoli,
Bartolomeo did once call me kin.
Paoli
Each time you wag that tale I remind you
that I was there, and what I heard him say of you
was, "Is he dozing?" wherein you awoke
thinking yourself his lordship's equal.
Antonio
All the same, that day didn't make me his kin,
but an afternoon forty years before it,
The gift of scent was a gift from him, Paoli,
and by that gift I say: here, was where the noise
sounded before they noted us, and fled.
Paoli
Alright, so your royal nose says this was them,
but this is now, in which direction fled they ?
Antonio
All directions, for they separated.
Paoli
Not all directions, since they did not pass us.
Antonio
That is plain and needed no telling, Paoli.
Rosaline and Benvolio
50
Paoli
Then who was here, can your gift number them ?
Antonio
A woman by fragrance, and... two young nobles ?
by the sweat of their diet, free of wine.
Paoli
You have made a study of stink my friend,
since last I challenged your nasal knowledge.
Antonio
A nose is like an eye, it can be taught.
Paoli
Is an old nose better than an old dog
for learning new tricks, Antonio?
Antonio
Mock me all you want, at least it was not
the French, for they have their own home-cooked stench.
Paoli
So in your view, Verona is not invaded,
and we can once again report the scent
of challenged lovers as the cause of the noise?
Antonio
Why two nobles and just one woman though?
Paoli
Does your nose not discern deviancy?
Your pedigree claims a full share of it.
Antonio
The captain awaits our report, and I, await
our watch's end, after which I will maim you.
Paoli
So lead us out of the woods then, good hound,
for the sooner we return to our posts,
the sooner I'm maimed, and then pensioned off.
Antonio
Arriving sooner does not change the length of our watch.
Paoli
But leaving sooner will prove how lost you are?
Antonio
Even a dog can hear the river in Verona.
Paoli
Then lead on with your great howling proboscis.
Antonio
You play with me too much, sir, be forewarned.
Paoli
Forearmed, you play with yourself too much, sir.
Antonio
Pah, you are a knave. Follow if you can.
Rosaline and Benvolio
51
The soldiers leave.
The Friar jumps down from a tree branch.
Friar
Now here is why I love the forest and
its creatures great and small, death and the hunt
are ever present, and yet, there is always
some delight in the same instant.
But: the web
of causes and effects already being woven
tangle the mind, Bartolomeo's policy
must not unravel into war in the streets.
Some means must be found to keep Capulet
from martialling Adriana's son.
He sings as walks.
O by the waters,
O by the seas,
O by my hurt
am I in need of Thee.
Exeunt.
Act Three, Scene Four
Morning in the woods by the Adige River wall,
Dante walks with Francesco and Theodorus.
Francesco
This is where my father and I would sit.
He loved the view from here, for he could see
the valley and the mountains, as well as the bridge
his own father had built.
It was there, signore,
long before that bridge stood, that Frederick
the Second moved his army across the river
on a flotilla of boats tied together
into makeshift land by Ezzelino,
who intended them to come apart and so
betray the Emperor, only they didn't.
This is Verona's future and its legacy,
this gateway to the mountain passes
where armies cross Europe in times of war;
where traders come in times of peace: this is
the basis of our prosperity, or
poverty. It is why I believe that
Bartolomeo's policies are the wisest.
Armies trample our lands in their campaigns,
but Lombardy sustains us with its fields
and orchards.
Rosaline and Benvolio
52
Dante
The prosperity of Florence
was likewise founded in agrarian peace.
What is that Theodorus, it sounds like sword ?
Theodorus
It's coming from the piazza, Signore.
Francesco
I hear only the river, and the ducks.
Theodorus
Then ducks have blades my lord, for I hear clashing.
Francesco
Come, let us find out.
Theodorus
I cannot risk you.
We must return to the palace, my Lord.
Dante
I'll serve as scout, Can Grande, report back.
Francesco
Be careful, you have your own enemies in Verona.
Mercutio should be here to ward you.
Dante
He was reassigned, and besides I am a trained scout,
I'll be safe enough.
Theodorus
Francesco
We must go my lord.
See how conflict disturbs this city Signore?
Come Theodorus, if we must be safe,
then safe we must be, though I would prefer
to face this uproar and force its quiet.
But come.
They part. Dante comes upon Mercutio.
Dante
Mercutio
Mercutio !
Signore.
Dante
Mercutio
You look rested.
My body slept, my mind was in the river,
I have never slept so close to it before
as I did last night, in Lorenzo's hut nearby.
Dante
There's discord in the piazza. Sword on sword.
Mercutio
I heard, we are the Adige River, we hurtle
from heights through defiles to plough these walls,
we are the unchecked current of a land
Rosaline and Benvolio
53
being cleansed by gutter streams and runoff ditches.
We are its relentless race, impervious
to emperors and popes alike... we are
raging wounds, gouging fields where toiling hands
draw life from the turbulence shaped by these walls...
But how does it serve God, if these two banks,
naturally formed to flood, are forced by these
stone batteries my great uncle built,
to always stand face to face now? What else
can such a construction create, but a people
with a madness as wild as the Adige
in full spate ? Tybalt is one bank, and I, the other.
Dante
I see now that while your body slept, your mind...
You ponder much that I can't answer, and
lack the time to reflect on; but perhaps
this will help: while on the people's council
of Florence, the White and Black factions
of the Guelphs, led disturbances, including.
my best friend, who I voted to banish. While in exile,
he became feverish and died. I am not yet
certain I have forgiven myself for doing
what I thought was right, but I have no other
answer for you, and must leave you to discover
the cause of the disturbance in the piazza.
Mercutio
I told you Signore, it was caused by the river.
Tybalt was the friend of my childhood, we
were both Ghibellines, and so had no feud
to divide us. There is nobility in him
that will be lost if I kill him, or he, me,
and yet if he is not stopped, the force of his nature
will sweep away the guilty and the innocent.
Where is God in this tale, that I might act
in accordance with love's highest decrees ?
Dante
You scale the heights only to plunge yourself
into depths:, the way of love travels where it must,
just as water does, because even it can only
carve a new course over time....
Mercutio
But surely, Signore, in every now,
it is always possible to do
the one thing that love requires, anything else
is just an excuse for not doing it.
Tybalt will kill me to ensure his own death,
Rosaline and Benvolio
54
because he will then rampage until killed,
but if I let him kill me, he will know it:
might that not protect others, might he not
then let himself be killed? Isn't that love's
best outcome in all of this? Signore?
Dante
Runners come... are they friend or foe - Mercutio !
Mercutio
Friends...
Romeo and Benvolio enter running and stop when they reach Mercutio.
Benvolio
Mercutio
T'is Mercutio!
I see the river has you.
Dante
There was sword play in the piazza, why?
Romeo
No great thing, as far as greater things go,
though the old market itself is now a scene
of riot run its course. My father's man Abram,
saw fit to embroil our house in a quarrel
with Capulet's servants, Sampson and Gregory.
I came upon the scene from my wanderings,
and so watched Benvolio intercede
in the discord by disarming the combatants,
only to be disarmed by Tybalt,
but then soldiers came, and soon thereafter,
I saw the heads and wives of both houses
hurrying from their homes; and having no wish
for parental discourse on the nature of my nature,
I made for these woods, joined by Benvolio.
Mercutio
You crossed swords with Tybalt, and lived my friend ?
Benvolio
I sought only to part the servants, and
think his intent was not me, but display
for those onlooking, including the servants.
Mercutio
Feints within feints within feints within.. what?
Romeo
Our rudeness grows unconscionable:
Signore Dante, I am Romeo Montague,
son of the head of my house, but more,
a child of the tongue you have raised to heaven's ear,
I am without wit or skill or coin or
comparison, but if you need a dog
Rosaline and Benvolio
55
I am he, and if some clothes, I have these on my back.
I have bedding and books, for I have forsworn them all
this very morning intent as I now am
on becoming chaste and priestly. For love,
having reduced me to worship, disdains
my adoration and betrays me, but that
is a tale half told, and suggests theology
of muddlement, so I will shorten its telling
to say that I am fit to outfit you,
and worthy to be of worth to you, and,
having become as nothing, I am now
the perfect vessel for service to neighbour
and stranger alike, unless this is but a fit
and I its frenzy... and so... my silence...
Benvolio
You are mad cousin, and I would be true kin
and kind, to serve your parents with the news
of your derangement, if it was not unkind
to tell them what they themselves refuse to see.
Dante
Having heard the generosity
of your intent Romeo, I have begun
to fear that if you make such offerings
in parting, as these in your greetings, then
I will come away with your father's house...
and so leave your family homeless, but,
never yet having met a man introducing
himself as willing to be worthy of worth.
I shall strive to make myself fit for you,
however ungloved you may have become
in the cause of love.
Romeo
Then I shall count you
as friend, and number myself among yours.
Benvolio
Arithmetic aside, I am Benvolio
cousin to this Montague, Signore,
but I too beg your pardon for this intrusion,
tho' I will not thrust my household goods upon you,
however equally high I hold your poetry
and your thought, but we have another tale
between us from the night just broken, and it
involves a design against you and Francesco,
learned from Rosaline Capulet, overheard
by her in the hallways of her home, and
if I had more breath I would tell it.
Rosaline and Benvolio
56
Dante
Come then, rest upon the wall, and we shall hear
your tale from there.
Mercutio
The Friar's hut is nearby,
let us take refuge in it, for that is where I
spent the night: it will afford us privacy
and while we listen, the river will us the truth
of what can and can't be done in Verona.
They go off.
Act Three, Scene Five
Rosaline is alone with her nurse.
Rosaline
So the servants fought, Benvolio separated them,
Tybalt entered the fray, but did not harm him,
in any way, other than to disarm him?
Nurse
That is the same tale told more than once, child.
Rosaline
Don't call me child.
Nurse
You seem more interested
in Benvolio in this, than Tybalt.
What are you playing at? Rosaline, Ros!
Rosaline
What?
Nurse
You are in love with the boy, child.
Rosaline
I am not a child, and he is not a boy.
I am older than my mother was when she wed,
my father was younger than he, was he not?
Nurse
Neither was in love with a Montague.
Rosaline
Consider Tybalt, he could have killed, but didn't.
Changing our hearts is divine work, is it not?
Nurse
You tempt fate.
Rosaline
The fates are old women weaving.
It is not temptation I am being led to,
but redemption; I serve a hallowed name:
not the furies, nor the Olympian gods,
which all our houses emulate in all our ploys.
Rosaline and Benvolio
57
Nurse
You are the tutored one, so I won't cross words
I cannot hope to untangle. However,
I know my place, and the place that my place is in.
I know the difference between my beginning
and my end. I also know too many secrets...
You are a pawn, not a queen Rosaline.
You are a woman, not a man in this.
You were born to bind houses together,
love is the only luxury you will never know.
Rosaline
I know I love him.
Nurse
Then for now, know it, cherish it,
but one day, it will be placed in a locket,
painted into a portrait concealed, shut
with a silver clasp, and hidden with your heart.
And if you are lucky, you will have a child
or many of your own, and they will be your love.
Rosaline
I will live my love openly, beseech the duke
and marry Benvolio in the name of Verona.
Nurse
You have the heart of the river in you,
but know, the water never remains here,
it vanishes into the Adriatic Sea,
becomes as salty as tears .. for the seas
are the places where the sorrows of young
lovers pool.
Rosaline
Then he and I will follow
the river to the sea, and sail until
all the seas end, until lands appear where
mercy serves love, and where forgiveness reigns.
Nurse
Aye, and send for my bones, that I might be
buried in such a land, and remembered
by such a heart as yours child.
Act Three, Scene Six
In the Palace.
Tybalt and Benvolio stand before Bartolomeo.
Prince
So I am to believe Tybalt, that because
Benvolio lives you did not intend his death,
and merely preserved your uncles' servants,
What say you to that Benvolio ?
Benvolio
I am not his match. I would be dead or maimed
Rosaline and Benvolio
58
if that had been Tybalt's intention.
Prince
Benvolio
So this was nothing more than a street brawl
between servants broken into new
understanding between the two of you.
It is, my Lord.
Prince
And what say you Tybalt ?
Tybalt
He would be dead if I meant to kill him.
And that, when the soldiers arrived, I did not
prevent them from restoring order.
I sheathed my sword as they asked....my lord.
Prince
Benvolio's account can be seconded
by witnesses, and so I release him
to his honour, but I have more I would say
to you alone Tybalt, and would not tempt your pride
by saying it in his presence. However,
be forewarned Bevolio, this is mercy,
it is not leniency, and I will not
have rumour reach me of tales told by you
of how you confounded me.
Benvolio
I am chastened,
and thankful for your mercy, my lord...
Prince
Then leave us.
Benvolio Goes.
So Tybalt, how am I to rule you,?
In the past your sword was but an instrument
to strip lesser men of their arrogance,
leavened only by some of the gaiety
and occasional good humour that my kinsman,
Mercutio, alone seemed to draw from you.
I have no proof that you have become the terror
that disturbs this city at night, however,
rumour abounds, and eventually
will burst into light with evidence
by which you will swiftly fall.
If I were you.
I would leave Verona, leave she who defiled you,
find a place where no one knows you, begin again.
You would not be the first swordsman to lay down
his rapier and pick up tools of peace, nor
Rosaline and Benvolio
59
the first wounded lover to find love again.
These are not impossibilities.
Tybalt
Would that such could be true, my lord.
Prince
Only death ends what is possible, Tybalt.
Go, and find another way for yourself.
Tybalt
My lord.
He Goes. Constance Steps out of an alcove.
Prince
I lack the strength for such sorrows, my marrow
refuses my health, I would lay down and die
if I did not love you with my every breath.
Constance
You must gird yourself Bartolomeo,
the people need your wisdom to keep from
plunging into the abyss that gapes Verona.
Prince
I weep for this city.
Constance
Then weep, but having wept,
wipe your eyes and rule once more: the price of peace
is high, the cost of life is always death.
You must endure.
Prince
I know all this, but I am dying
and you will not allow me the dignity of admitting it,
allow me to tell my people, you think you
can ward it away from me by refusing
to acknowledge the truth. I must ensure Alboino's
place in the hearts of Veronans my love,
allow me to prepare for the transition.
Constance
Such an admission makes it inevitable!
Prince
When a man can no longer live well, then
all that is left him, is to die well. Let me
die well.
Constance
You are the prince of Verona,
and I, the great granddaughter of the Emperor:
if this is how you would rule your last months,
then I will serve you as you require.
Prince
Come, we will grieve in private for a time,
and then I will begin to live my end, and so secure
the future, as my father secured the past.
Rosaline and Benvolio
60
Act Four, Scene One
At the Capulet's Masque.
Juliet Hurries over to Rosaline
Juliet
Where have you been? You said you would come with news.
Rosaline
Tybalt warned me to stay out of it, but
I knew we would meet tonight, you need to leave:
go to the Friar, he lives in the woods
by the river wall, ask him for sanctuary,
tell him you need the safety of a convent,
tell him to ask Benvolio why.
Juliet
You have to tell me why first. Please Ros.
Rosaline
You cannot let them know you know.
You can't even be seen talking to me for too long.
You need to go tomorrow, they will all
be hungover and sleeping, you cannot
let them use you for their designs. Promise me.
Juliet
I don't want to be a nun.
Rosaline
You don't have to be.
Just claim sanctuary. In a few years
you'll be old enough to leave.
Juliet
And that's my only hope?
Rosaline
At least it's hope, and the Friar will help you.
Juliet
Tybalt is watching.
Rosaline
He's not our enemy.
Just... enjoy tonight, let them see you happy,
unconcerned. We've tricked them before, haven't we?
Juliet
Yes, and at least I have a mask to protect me.
Benvolio
Here you are as I would never wish to see you.
Rosaline
Benvolio ? Are you mad, why are you here?
Benvolio
Since my need to know that you are well
was accompanied by the knowledge that
this is a masque, I shall not judge you unwell
She crosses the room.
Rosaline and Benvolio
61
by the guise of your appearance, for you
seem to be the symbols of your family
ravaged by some internal disorder.
The very choice of costume would decree
that you are unwell all the same, so I
shall have to learn the truth in your own words,
for mine say, here is discord of heart and soul.
Rosaline
Lay aside all that and I will give you
different reasons for my disturbed look,
namely you, and all your doings.
Benvolio
How so ?
Rosaline
How not ? Brawling with Tybalt, escaping
banishment; showing up here where you never
before dared to enter, just to see if I am well ?
Benvolio
I may have mis-sensed your meaning, but you
are angry because I am unbanishéd?
Rosaline
I am not angry. I am sick with fear for you.
You narrow the odds of your own future
in my cause daily, and now you are here,
in this place, where even I do not know
who is friend and who is foe.
Benvolio
I am friend,
am I not ?
Rosaline
How did you enter, how did you pass the watch ?
Benvolio
Through the door, where he stood and took our pass.
Rosaline
Our ? Who is our, who else is here with you?
Benvolio
Mercutio is here by Tybalt's invite,
and Romeo is...somewhere... I'm not sure where...
He somehow won an invitation from one
of Lord Capulet's inbred relations.
Rosaline
One of my inbred relations, mean you ?
What is your costume, what conceit is concealed
by your last minute disguise?
Last minute ?
It was ten minutes in the making,
Benvolio
Rosaline and Benvolio
62
and twenty in its conception. I think it
winsome.
Rosaline
Winsome ?
Benvolio
Aye, winning and charming.
Rosaline
My mad mad man, this is not tree top play,
neither of us is seven anymore.
Benvolio
Leaving aside our ages and your fears,
are you faring well, does anyone know
you were out that night, where you went, and why ?
Are you well Rosaline ?
Rosaline
You appear to me to be as afflicted
by questions about me, as I am with ones
about you. Perhaps we have the same disorder.
Benvolio
We have always had the same disorder.
Rosaline
You were always disheveled...
Benvolio
The freedom to speak
over the past two days has unleashed me again.
Rosaline
As it has me.
Benvolio
I have so many questions.
which room is yours, what flower do you love,
what food, what song, what dance, what jest, what sight?
Rosaline
The sight of you, the gist of you, your step,
your song, and the longing to know the taste,
the touch, the whisper, the all of you, only
elsewhere, not now, not here, not in this place.
Please go before fear dismantles me.
Benvolio
I have one question that asks all the others.
Rosaline
This is not a game, you know the stakes....
Benvolio
My lady... I do.
Rosaline
You know the cost.
Rosaline and Benvolio
63
Benvolio
Rosaline
My lady please.
All your questions have their answer in yes.
Who is that by Juliet ?
Benvolio
Rosaline
Romeo.
Tybalt seeks Lord Capulet.
Benvolio
Your Lord is not pleased.
Rosaline
He constrains Tybalt. See. Masques within masques,
they both play at different games and neither
is fooled by the other.
Benvolio
I should fish Romeo
from this sea of sharks, for I know not
what my cousin plays at, but his game seems
to be bring him ease, for he relaxes into
some peek-a-boo with Juliet, who seems
as intent as he.
Rosaline
Perhaps he seeks to make me
jealous...
Benvolio
And does he succeed ?
Rosaline
I would have you both
out of here before this ends in misadventure.
So go, please, good and faithful man, remove
your cousin before mine contrives ill for him.
Benvolio
Is that Paris with Lady Capulet, there?
Rosaline
It is.
Benvolio
By stature he is the Prince's kin,
and bears himself with no little nobility.
Rosaline
He is not my style of man, although I
will not gainsay his dignity, nor guess
at his purposes here, but there is the disdain
of an ancient house in him, see... there,
he carries himself like one who knows his
familial stars are about to achieve
ordained alignment.
Rosaline and Benvolio
64
He does not look pleased
that Juliet plays with someone he must know
to be Montague... Please get Romeo
and yourself from this room Benvolio,
before this masque implodes.
Mercutio
Rosaline
Well, here are friends.
Are you drunk?
Mercutio
I am drunk on river water.
Rosaline
You must join Benvolio to Romeo
and see them out of here, the room is turning.
I will not have them harmed, Mercutio.
Benvolio
Romeo's gone, so is she. What 's out there?
Rosaline
The garden, where the cypress grows...
Benvolio
Our cypress?
I would see it.
Rosaline
Not today you won't. Now go.
I'll look for Romeo, Mercutio
can retrieve him. Leave the way you came. Please?
Benvolio
Come to the river, near the Friar, I'll be there.
Every morning.
He leaves.
Rosaline
Mercutio
Help me find Romeo.
The river knows its role and plays it well. Come.
They go looking for Romeo.
Rosaline and Benvolio
65
Act Four, Scene Two
In Rosaline's Room her Nurse helps her remove her costume.
Lay Capulet enters.
Lady C
Where's Juliet, I thought she might be with you?
Rosaline
She is not here, and in truth, I have not much
seen her, perhaps she is with Paris.
Lady C
The last I saw her she was consorting
with a guest I learned was Romeo.
Rosaline
I have not seen her.
Lady C
Was that not Benvolio Montague
with you Ros, and on the self-same day that
Tybalt and he were called before the Prince
to answer for the riot in the street?
Nurse
She but attempts to serve the Prince's law.
Lady C
Shh. Answer me Rosaline, for there
are many faces to loyalty, and I
would know which is your true one. This costume
you wore tonight, this disfigured display
of the symbols of this house, is an insult:
what is your masque's sinister meaning for those
who feed and shelter you? You not only
had no company but that of a Montague,
but you also offended the lord and
lady of this house before their guests. Now,
where is Juliet ?
Rosaline
I do not know my lady.
Until yesterday, Romeo doted
on me, so I was confounded by his display,
perhaps Juliet simply hid to be
free of him. I cannot say because I
do not know where she is. Perhaps her nurse...
Lady C
What you cannot say, and what you are willing
to say, seem to me to be two strands of
the same deception. So be forewarned, you
are on the verge of holy orders, and if
you betray this house you will find yourself learning
obedience from an abbess. As for you Nurse,
Rosaline and Benvolio
66
I know the collaboration you practice,
for I was a girl once, and was beloved by my own nurse,
so I know only too well that she served me
and not my house. But you go too far in this.
I care nothing for the length of your service,
restrain this girl or you will find yourself
on a ship to a world where no one will
understand a word you say, nor care how
you live from day to day.
She Goes.
Nurse
Come Ros, come my chick, let's remove the last
of this masquerade so you can rest. I...
Rosaline
She does not frighten me; nor should you be frightened,
for we have allies. The Prince will not allow them
to harm you.
Nurse
You grow towards womanhood bravely
my sweet, but there is a naviete in you
that only experience will complete.
I could vanish in a twinkling, and you
banished to the novitiate before anyone
would know we were missing.
Rosaline
And would you have us serve her designs, Nurse?
Nurse
Retreat is not surrender, it is survival,
and it is only by concealing ourselves in quiet,
can we hope to act on the day that our
cause needs our revival.
Rosaline
I will be ruled by you.
Nurse
Then you must now practice self-rule. How else
do you think nurses survive in great houses
like these ? We know everything between us
and could topple kingdoms if that was our concern,
but it is not, you are my concern. You.
Rosaline
Do you think Juliet is with Romeo ?
Nurse
Heaven help them if they are found so.
Shall I brush the beauty back into your hair ?
Rosaline
Let me instead brush comfort into your
Rosaline and Benvolio
67
ever caring head. Come nurse, sit, let me loose
your braids, for I would be servant to you
and so soothe some of your loyal distress:
it must have been a long while since anyone
offered you the joy of a hair brush's caress.
Nurse
Aye, my mother has been long dead.
Rosaline Begins to Brush her Nurse's Hair.
Act Four, Scene Three
The remains of the masque. Capulet and Paris, drunk.
Capulet
And so you will have my daughter, Paris.
Paris
If only to see her for longer than I have so far.
Capulet
She is willful.
Paris
So am I. So are you,
so is your wife, so are we all, willful...
Capulet
She's not her mother though, and that's a blessing.
Paris
T'is good she's not her mother, for I hear
the lady is already married.
Capulet
Aye, my wife,
though not the lady I married. She is long lost.
Paris
Juliet will never be my wife.
Capulet
Why say you that ?
Paris
She played with Romeo and came not near me.
Capulet
That was spite aimed not at you, but at us. She is
willful, but she will be ruled, for she is not foolish.
Paris
We'll see. Did you know my mother my Lord ?
Capulet
She was a girl, and lived some streets away...
in those days girls were not so willful.
She lived beside Lady Capulet, who I
did not know then...
Paris
Why was she sent to Rome ?
Rosaline and Benvolio
68
Capulet
Mastino's will decreed it, and so she went.
Paris
My mother was sixteen when she died of me.
I have often thought I committed matricide,
and that this life of mine is a sentence
for my crime against my mother. T'is true...
Capulet
That is a strange conception upon which to frame
the entirety of your existence, son.
Paris
Why can a baby not be its mother's killer ?
Capulet
You should seek out the Friar. I am not
a man with much thought on such subjects,
and so would not attempt to assay such hurt
as yours. And do not fear for Juliet,
for I remain Lord and master here. 'cept
for sleep, which rules me now, so to bed with me,
seek your own soon.
Tomorrow the house
will be hungover with silence, slow moving,
so don't worry about rising, the day after
will do, once we are through with all this wine's
recovery. I bid you goodnight. You
are now heir to my fortunes, let that
be your comfort. Life begins anew. soon, soon.
He Goes.
Paris
Exeunt.
Where am I sleeping ? Which way is my bed ?
Up, up, get up, get up Paris, there are
two feet that will serve well enough for walking,
stand on them freely. I am reeling. I must
find some servant, where's my page ? Where's my bed ?
Stumble on, bumble on, for you are now engaged.
Here is your murderer mother, heir to a
fortune of vertiginous wonder. Where
on Earth are you Paris ? Where am I?
Which way is me ? Walk, Leonardo Colonna,
your destiny requires you to pass out
somewhere. Down there, down there. That way I go.
And where the hell is Mercutio?
Rosaline and Benvolio
69
Act Four, Scene Three
In the Merchants Hall. Two days after the Masque.
Rosaline
Why are we here so early ?
Nurse
Because I could not
rouse you to come with me yesterday,
and because Lady Capulet is home
and I want us out of her way.
Rosaline
They must have stayed up the whole of that night
and consumed half the wine cellar,
for no one moved yesterday, and few
were stirring even this morning.
Nurse
O they were driven into the bottle alright,
I never heard so much veritas and
soothsaying in my life. Once I'd put you to bed
and made for my own, I could hear it in hallways,
from the top to the bottom of the house,
one great drunken confessional with every
nook and cranny taken up with twos and threes
and no few people alone by themselves
talking to God knows who; it made me dizzy
listening to all the truths told that should
never have left half the lips that spoke them.
I found Paris stumbling down a hallway and
saw him safely to bed. He's no source of fear,
he's a child torn by the dread of his mother's death,
caused as it was by his birth.
Rosaline
And Juliet ?
Have you yet learned where she was that night?
Nurse
O... she's kept to her room since, her nurse says,but
Rosaline
But... ?
Nurse
Rosaline
But nothing my chick... What can I buy you ?
She wasn't found with Romeo was she ?
Nurse
Rosaline
Found ? No...
What are you hiding my old hen ?
Rosaline and Benvolio
70
Nurse
Only what
I would rather you not know because I'd rather
not know it myself.
Rosaline
"A burden is lightened
in the sharing."
Nurse
Rosaline
Not this one, I think.
Did something happen to her ? Has Lady
Capulet done something to her ?
Nurse
Rosaline
Nurse
Rosaline
Nurse
Rosaline
Not yet.
Tell me !
Juliet is married.
Married ?
There's been but one full day since she met Paris,
and the house was asleep for most of it.
Why bring Paris to Verona and then
marry in secret ?
Paris was not the groom.
This jest is not like you.
Nurse
It was Romeo.
Rosaline
There's nothing funny about this, Nurse.
Nurse
I know. Her parents don't know, only her nurse.
Rosaline
What priest of Verona would marry Capulet
to Montague in their church?
Nurse
The Friar.
He has the authority, and the bond
is already consummated.
Rosaline
Nurse
Rosaline
Where ?
Her room.
He was in love with me three days ago!
Rosaline and Benvolio
71
Or was it four? What is that shouting ?
Nurse
T'is the street, t'is Mercutio
and Tybalt !
Rosaline
Nurse
I must put myself between them.
You will not !
Rosaline
This must be stopped.
Nurse
Benvolio
is there, if this can be stopped he will try.
Rosaline
No, he'll be killed. Tybalt ! Tybalt! No!
The nurse holds her back.
Nurse
Hold Ros, t'is folly to come between swords.
Romeo comes, his own sword sheathed...
Rosaline
Tybalt taunts him but attacks Mercutio
through Romeo's arms.
Nurse
Tybalt flees: all is well,
the threat is past.
Rosaline
Nurse
Rosaline
Mercutio was pierced.
He jests.
He falters.
Nurse
He's falling.
Romeo has the sword, Tybalt returns in grief.
This is madness boy, you will widow her
before she stops aching from your marriage night.
Romeo has slain undefending Tybalt.
Rosaline
Ah Tybalt...
he found his death and spared Benvolio.
Romeo throws down the sword and runs off.
Benvolio sees Rosaline, gathers up Mercutio and carries him to her.
Rosaline
Help them nurse, take our bolt of cloth, make him a bed.
Mercutio ? Does it hurt ?
Rosaline and Benvolio
72
Mercutio
If I breathe,
but that will stop. I am now both a holy fool, a
and a bloody one:the river has run me through.
Did anyone else die?
Rosaline
Mercutio
Rosaline
Tybalt is dead.
Just he and I?
Yes, Romeo escaped.
Mercutio
Benvolio, remember your word.
Place your hand in Rosaline's, otherwise
a plague on both your houses, a pox,
two poxes, and some bad coughs.
Benvolio
Here is my bond.
Rosaline
And mine.
He dies.
Rosaline
Mercutio...?
Pain and breath are gone. He is dead, Tybalt
his killer, Juliet's husband the cause.
Benvolio
Husband ? That is what he was ranting about
to Tybalt, calling him kinsman. Married ?
This is madness many times over.
Romeo and Juliet married - when, how ?
Nurse
What bond does this death hold you to Rosaline ?
Benvolio
It holds only me, it binds me to her protection.
Rosaline
We shall be Benvolio's witnesses;
Romeo's defenders and accusers.
I am no more a maiden, nurse, the chastity
of my heart has been broken, and my love
is now Benvolio's forever.
This hall of princely peace is now stained with murder.
Nurse
Soldiers come, a crowd gathers.
Rosaline and Benvolio
73
Act Four, Scene Four
Rosaline and Benvolio by the river wall.
Rosaline
Juliet is dying, she was up yesterday,
but today the physicians say she has failed,
they won't let me speak to her...
Benvolio
Romeo is in Mantua. and will grow mad with grief,
for his mind was always impetuous.
Rosaline
Do not send word, he will not live if he seeks
to see her, the house is full of talk of Tybalt,
every lesser man now vies for his stature.
They are not worth the ground he darkened,
for his, was a light dimmed, then extinguished.
Benvolio
I am weary of Verona.
Rosaline
The river does not ever
seem to tire of its raging...
Benvolio
down stream,
it eases through Lombardy's marshes and
all but lays itself into the sea as if agéd,
dreaming of the mountain springs of its birth.
Rosaline
I have never seen the Adriatic,
nor much beyond what lies within sight of here.
Benvolio
Then we should leave.
Rosaline
And how would we live,
and what would we do ?
Benvolio
Rosaline
We could teach, tutor...
My nurse comes.
Nurse
Hello my chick.
Rosaline
Nurse
Rosaline
Nurse
Rosaline
It's Juliet, isn't it?
She's dead.
She can't be.
Nonetheless, she is.
They're on their way to the mausoleum
with her now.
How can she be dead ?
Nurse
I only know she is.
Will you come ?
Rosaline and Benvolio
74
Rosaline
This cannot be Benvolio !
Benvolio
It must be, for it is...
Nurse
If you want to see her,
before they close her in, you must come now.
Benvolio
Go. I will place myself nearby.
Rosaline
Nurse
How can this be?
Let no Capulet see you Benvolio,
for they are mad with grief, blaming Montague.
They leave together. The Friar appears from behind a tree.
Friar
This design of mine grows unruly; it
gathers dread as its consequences spread.
O holy Francis, let my potions serve
the purposes for which they were given,
let some good come from this, for I am chilled
by the guise of her death, though I know she lives.
Let Romeo come undetected, let his rescue
be complete, so that someday all this will be
but the remnant of a nightmare from which
all will have wakened, reconciled. Amen.
Perhaps I should leave here myself.
Sings as walks.
O by You, O by me,
only by love/ may I come to Thee.
Exeunt
Act Four, Scene Five
At the cemetery. Night.
Benvolio
Go home Benvolio, Romeo has not heard,
and so not come. This is all madness,
I don't know how he came to think that he loved
Juliet in the space of two evenings and yet,
there was a marriage, and now now there is a death.
My feelings for Rosaline, were grown over
same few days, but they were planted long ago;
nurtured over years by smiles and songs
and secret signals, child's play that blossomed
in due seasons. Softly, someone comes...
T'is Paris with his page, and a storm lamp.
Am I the only one who does not allow himself
Rosaline and Benvolio
75
to be consumed by love between hello
and how are you ? So, why Paris? Why?
Why are you here, you met Juliet so briefly,
what cause have you to grieve her ? Love in a glance?
Wait... wait... let him go deeper in.
There, they round the tombs which should veil my step.
Another light comes. This place is alive
with lights and pages going every which way.
I'm safe here, but who was that who arrived ?
I cannot see, dare not ask and now he's in my way.
I must slip 'round some other route, and so see
the mausoleum better.
Now what sound is that ?
Metal on metal: someone pries the tomb gate.
There are voices, draw closer, but softly,
softly, the second page still lurks about somewhere.
Those are swords and that the sound of clashing.
Someone is dead, the page is panicked but
what he says I cannot decipher, he flees
so it must be Paris his master.
Now there is silence, nay murmuring, someone
talks to themselves, as you do Benvolio,
but is it Romeo ?
The second page calls the watch,
I know the voice but cannot name a match:
this is now a trap. I must soon act one way or
another. Still more light comes but cannot be
the watch so fast. Stay Benvolio stay,
this walker at least you'll sight.
T'is the Friar
with Paris' page, I will mask my steps with Lorenz's
and follow.
Friar
Romeo ! Who else ? Paris too ?
And steeped in blood ? What unkind hour is guilty
of this lamentable chance ? The lady stirs.
Juliet
O comfortable Friar! Where is my lord?
I do remember well where I should be,
And there I am. Where is my Romeo?
Benvolio
T'is Juliet, alive ! but who is that
by her side ? Romeo ! Why so still ?
Have I stood by, while Romeo died ?
Rosaline and Benvolio
76
The watchman comes, I must shift or be caught.
Was Romeo only wounded by Paris
or is he lost ?
The Friar leaves and I cannot see;
nor can I stay.
How many are alive in this cemetery,
and where are they now arrayed? I could stumble
into anyone of them: this is madness, move.
But leave how ? There, beyond that ancient stone.
Go, and begone, for the watchman sends his
sentries to cast their nets to seize the living.
He manages to slip away unseen.
Act Four, Scene Six
By the river, as dawn breaks through the mist, Rosaline arrives, but cannot find Benvolio, and so
begins to pace. Benvolio staggers exhausted to the wall and sits.
Rosaline
Where were you? You said you would be here!
I'm so angry with you.
Benvolio
I'm sorry dear one.
I was in the cemetery hiding and yet, know
nothing for certain, dependent as I was
on light not my own, while comings and goings
forced me into ever worse vantages;
I know only that Paris came, fought, and died
by Romeo's hand, and that the Friar
found Juliet alive and Romeo - does he live ?
Rosaline
He died by poison, and Juliet's life,
concealed by the Friar's arts, ended,
when she woke and sheathed her husband's knife in her heart.
Benvolio
I stayed hidden, bound by my promise
to Mercutio to live so that I might serve you.
Rosaline
They are better dead, for such were the ties
that bound them to one another that they
would have drowned if they ever attempted
to swim the life they'd chosen.
Benvolio
But Paris,
why was Paris even there ? What grief had he?
Rosaline
Am I too cautious? Is that why, in my
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77
fear for you, I would abandon Verona?
Below this tumult, is there not a gentler course
towards the sea ? Surely our love need not be
all precipice and cataclysm? Does not the care
of our Prince and his Lady, run to calmer depths?
Can not our love, like the river, survive
the turbulence of Verona, and so
carry us downstream to more tranquil places?
Benvolio
It can and will and must, for our care was born
in the tree tops of childhood, innocence
is ours, we have breeze in our memories,
not storm, we have beds of singsong and play;
my memories of you are dappled in shade,
as sun-bright as your smile upon finding me,
each and every one of all those days ago.
Rosaline
Last night, you kept your word to lost Mercutio;
and honoured the life Tybalt allowed you to keep.
I will have your children, and raise them to live,
and in that way, honour all those who died.
Benvolio
I will follow you to that gentler course;
where hot afternoons will be spent moored in shade
or in the pool of some river bend, and when
night falls on us, I will trace your beauty
in the curiousities of your character.
Rosaline
Though not, I trust, in lieu of helping me feed,
shelter and clothe ourselves and our children.
Benvolio
How is it possible to feel such hope
while still on this bed of loss and sorrow?
Rosaline
Because we were saved by those who died.
Benvolio
I want this intimacy to linger.
Rosaline
I am envious of Juliet, but even there,
I will not fling myself into some heedless defile,
but will find some sacred bed in your heart.
Benvolio
I'm not certain the Friar is still free
to perform the ceremony we will require,
and I know of no other who will do it.
Francesco steps out of the forest.
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78
Ros & Ben
My lord !
Francesco
I'm sorry, forgive my intrusion,
I come here most mornings, because this is where
my father and I would sit, before his death,
I was here when you arrived but could not
easily extricate myself from where I was,
and so became an unwilling fly on the wall
of your love and grief. I know we have known
one another from afar, but the truth is,
I have watched you as one child always
watches those who come just before him.
You are the generation I might one day rule,
now that we know Bartolommeo is dying.
Benvolio
What?
Rosaline
No, not them as well as all this other grief.
Francesco
It was news to be told
later today. He is ill, though no one knows
how long he has... sooner than later.
Benvolio
Then Alboino will rule Verona for the Guelphs?
Francesco
He will rule Verona for the people of Verona.
Rosaline
Poor Constanza, how can she bear it...?
Their love inspires everyone I know,
we all want what they have... even Juliet did.
Francesco
You were both Mercutio's friends, and I
require some way of honouring him.
So I would do for you in public, what the Friar
tried to do for your cousins concealed.
You must have a dowry Rosaline, and
you Benvolio some benefice for the future.
For my part, I will have a boat built
for you to live upon, and it will be placed
in the Adige below Verona.
Benvolio
My lord, you humble me. Should the day come
when thoughts of return console us with memories of
home, and you have Verona as your due, I will repay
this kindness in full to you.
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79
Rosaline
I too accept the banks of your gift my lord,
and will confine myself to the course you set.
Francesco
Then by your leave, lets us put all in motion.
Theodorus ! Signore Dante ! Come, my friends
we have a wedding to devise.
Theodorus
My prince, the city
has just begun to mourn the loss of pope and empire,
and reels from all last night's sorrows, it will
also soon reel from the news of...
Francesco
"Let the dead bury their dead," and let those who
would live, live. This city of ours has grown
too morose of late, Theodorus.
I would see it breathe again.
But, you are right,
as always my friend, decorum has its place
in these events, and I will not offend
when healing is my end.
Dante
My Lord Can Grande,
I only hope your body grows as large as your heart,
for its goodness will soon swell beyond the frame
of Theodorus and burst all bonds that constrain it.
Francesco
Now that is an explosion my enemies
will endorse.
Dante
Then come, let us gladden those
who would be glad again, gently treat those
who have been saddened. And from the decay
of passions overspent by those now lost
of the heaven-lent, let us turn to your
new purpose, and let all here, who will yet
serve love, restore themselves from within,
and so bless Benvolio, and his Rosaline.
Exeunt.
The End
Rosaline and Benvolio contact information:
writer: Jerry Prager
244 Geddes Street
Elora On. N0B 1S0
phone: 519-846-8076
email: [email protected]
Background to the Action of Rosaline and Benvolio by Jerry Prager
1. Rosaline and Benvolio, in essence unfolds and entwines with the action of
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, although, most of what happens onstage there,
takes place offstage here. most of this play occurs on the two days before action
of Romeo and Juliet begins, and concludes on the day after.
2. Because Shakespeare's story was taken from a series of earlier writers: Broke,
Painter, Bandello, Luigi da Porta etc. I felt free to create what dramatic effect I
was seeking. Yet, constraining myself to Shakespeare's plot development and
basic character relations. I also sought to constrain myself to the actual history of
Verona in which the earlier writers somewhat disinterestedly set the action. In
studying the stated time however, it proved to be a bonanza of dramatic context.
In writing this piece, the image of the river Adige, flowing through the city, and
thus dividing it with its force, seems applicable, since, on the one hand I had
Shakespeare and co., and on the other, I had the histories of Verona and of the
Holy Roman Empire.
3. The feud, which not only divided the Montagues from the Capulets, but which
divided all Verona and Italy during the twelve and thirteen hundreds, was
between supporters of the papacy (the so-called Guelphs) and the Ghibillenes
(pronounced with a hard gee) supporters of the emperors. Since the time of
Charlemagne, it had been the practice of the German princes to elect their king,
and once elected, would go to Rome, and there be anointed Holy Roman
Emperor.
Both the Guelphs and the Ghibillenes were originally specific German houses.
The Guelphs were descended from a peer of Charlemagne's, Welf, whose family
had married into the imperial house, but whose claim had been negated by the
German electors, subsequently turning the house and the cause into the home of
those who believe the popes should have more power than the emperors. The
Ghibillenes were members of Hohenstaufen family, whose ancestral home was
near the ruined castle of Waiblingen in Franconia (Italianized to Ghibelline.)
During the 1200s the Hohenstaufen emperors, Frederick II and Conrad IV found
themselves at odds with the papacy. The Church sought assistance from the
French and their Spanish allies. Conrad's son, Conradin, was beheaded in 1268
by Charles of Anjou, brother of the French King, at the behest of the pope,
ending the male line of the Hohenstaufen family.
Verona was and is, the gateway to the north and south, since the Alpine passes
and rivers that lead to and from Germany lay in its demense, as does the route
between the Adriatic Sea in the east and the Ligurian Sea in the west: thus,
Verona was both a stronghold of the Germanic Empire, and crucial to the geopolitics of the Italian Peninsula.
At the time of this play, French machinations against the Italian papacy
and the German controlled Holy Roman Empire had isolated the German cause
to the region of Lombardy, home of Verona.
Bartolomeo della Scala, podesta of Verona from 1301-1304, was linked by
marriage to other ruling houses of Lombardy. His sister was married to Obizzo II
of Este. Since Shakespeare made Mercutio a kinsman of the Prince, I have made
him the Son of Barolomeo's sister Constanza, wife of Obizzo of Este.
Barolomeo's wife Constance was the daughter of Corrado, Prince of Antioch, a
son of King Manfred of Sicily, an illegitimate, but recognized son of Frederick
II, making her a Hohenstaufen.
Historically the Montecchio (Montagues) and Capeletti (Capulets) were
respectively Guelphs and Ghibillenes, thus, Romeo's family is the minority party
in Verona.
Paris is also called a kinsman by the Bard, but with such a first name in those
circumstances, I made him a namesake grandson of Leonardo (Mastino, the
Mastiff) della Scala II, through a fictional, illegitimate daughter, who was sent to
Rome, raised by the nuns, married into an Italian family allied to the French, and
then died in childbirth to her son, who was educated in France and returned with
the nickname Paris. Making him a second cousin to Bartolomeo (and thus, a
third cousin to Mercutio)
All these elements add up to the fact that Shakespeare identifies his Prince of
Verona as Escalus, ie, a della Scala. I have placed the action in the three year
reign of Bartolomeo, because it coincides with a plot by the French to kidnap
the pope, creating a context for the arrival of “Paris”. The actions of the French
also create an opportunity for Bartolomeo, who, though short-lived, was known
as a patron of the arts, and a firm believer in using the Lombard League to
establish peace in the north of Italy.
Dante Alighieri, the poet, was known to have spent time in Verona during his
exile from Florence, the actual year is not know, scholars take different positions.
What is known is the Dante became the friend of Bartolomeo's brother.
Francesco (Can Grande) della Scala, a future rule of Verona and its environs. For
the purposes of this story, I have made the assumption that their friendship began
in 1303, at that critical juncture in papal/imperial history. Dante was a lifelong
champion of liberty. The Italian historian Sarino noted that after Bartolomeo's
death “It was not the great folk or the nobility who accompanied him to his
grave, but the poor of the town in tears.”
In all these different contexts, Rosaline and Benvolio, becomes a tale of lovers
from two sides of feuding nations and factions and families, lovers who survive
the Shakespearean tragedy of their cousin's deaths.