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schmericaOne of my books that came from my Christmas gift certificate from Amazon yesterday was The Lion in Winter -- aka, my favorite play of ALL TIME. I adore Plantagenets and Eleanor of Acquitaine, and have since I first discovered her in third grade, but this is something in and of itself. HEART.
Alais: When can I believe you, Henry?
Henry: Always; even when I lie.
Alais: How much is it safe to hope for?
Henry: Everything.
Alais: But with so many enemies--
Henry: I know-- and some of them are smarter folk than I or crueler or more ruthless or dishonest. But not all rolled into one. The priests write all the history these days and they'll do me justice. Henry, they'll say, was a master bastard. Extending his arm Come; let's go downstairs and meet the family.
Eleanor: Have we seen the French King yet?
Geoffrey: Not yet.
Eleanor: Let's hope he's grown up like his father -- simon pure and simon simple. Good, good Louis; if I'd managed sons for him instead of all those little girls, I'd still be stuck with being Queen of France and we should not have known each other. Such, my angels, is the role of sex in history.
Eleanor: Henry, I have a confession.
Henry: Yes?
Eleanor: I don't much like our children.
Eleanor: Did you rehearse all this or are you improvising?
Henry: Good God, woman, face the facts.
Eleanor: Which ones? We've got so many.
John: The woods are full of chancellors.
Geoffrey: And the castle's full of kings.
Richard: You are Medea to the tooth but this is one son you won't use for vengeance on your husband,
Eleanor: I could bend you. I could wear you like a bracelet -- but I'd sooner die.
Eleanor: See? You do remember. I taught you dancing, too, and languages and all the music that I knew and how to love what's beautiful. The sun was warmer then and we were every day together.
Philip: I see I'm early for my audience. Or am I late?
Geoffrey: No, you're exquisitely on time. I feel the strangest sense of kinship with you, Philip.
Philip: So you've sensed it, too.
Geoffrey: How far around the corner were you?
Philip: How'd you know?
Geoffrey: You came in so conveniently.
Philip: I'll learn.
Eleanor: The boy keeps wondering if your promises are good.
Henry: There's no use asking if the air's good when there's nothing else to breathe.
Eleanor: I even made poor Louis take me on the Crusade. How's that for blasphemy? I dressed my maids as Amazons and rode bare-breasted halfway to Damascus. Louis had a seizure and I damn near died of windburn but the troops were dazzled.
Henry: She'll never marry, not while I'm alive.
Philip: Your life and never are two different times.
Henry: Not on my clock, boy.
Henry: When? I'm fifty now. My God, boy. I'm the oldest man I know. I've got a decade on the pope. What's it going to be? The broadsword when I'm eighty-five?
Eleanor: May I watch you kiss her?
Henry: Can't you ever stop?
Eleanor: I watch you every night. I conjure it before I sleep.
Henry: Leave it at that.
Eleanor: My curiosity is intellectual: I want to see how accurate I am.
Henry: (To Alais) Forget the dragon in the doorway; come. (Holding her) Believe I love you. Belive I'm yours forever, for I am. Belive in my contentment and the joy you give me and believe-- (To Eleanor) You want more? (Their eyes burn at each other. Then, turning slowly back to Alais) I'm in old man in an empty place. Be with me.
(They kiss. Eleanor stands in the doorway, watching.)
Eleanor: I'd hang you from the nipples but you'd shock the children.
Eleanor: I read minds. In yours, a shapely hand is writing, "Clever Mother, what's your clever reason for all this clever talk?" It isn't clever, but you'll make it so. I'm so sick of all of you.
Eleanor: Of course he's got a knife. He always has a knife. We all have knives. It is eleven eighty-three and we're barbarians. How clear we make it.
Eleanor: Where's that mirror? I am Eleanor and I can look at anything. My, what a lovely girl. How could her king have left her?
Geoffrey: (Indicating the tapestry) May we?
Philip: That's what tapestries are for.
Henry: My life, when it is writtn, will read better than it lived. Henry Fitz-Empress, first Plantagenet, a king at twenty-one, the ablest soldier of an able time. He led men well, he cared for justice when he could and ruled, for thirty years, a state as great as Charlemagne's. He married, out of love, a woman out of legend. Not in Alexandria or Rome or Camelot has there been such a queen. She bore him many children -- but no sons. King Henry had no sons. He had three whiskered things but he disowned them. You're not mine. We're not connected. I deny you. None of you will get my crown. I leave you nothing and wish you plague. May all your children breech and die. (Moving unsteadily toward the door) My boys are gone. I've lost my boys. (Stopping, glaring up) You dare to damn me, do you? Well, I damn you back. God man you. All my boys are gone. I've lost my boys. Oh Jesus, all my boys.
Alais: Did you love Henry -- ever?
Eleanor: Ever? Back before the flood?
Alais: As long ago as Rosamund.
Eleanor: Ah, that's pre-history, lamb; there are no written records or survivors.
Henry: I'm vilifying you, for God's sake. Pay attention/
Eleanor: Well, every family has one.
Henry: But not four.
Eleanor: I adored you.
Henry: Never.
Eleanor: I still do.
Henry: Of all the lies, that's the most terrible.
Eleanor: I know; that's why I saved it up for now.
Eleanor: I could peel you like a pear and God himself would call it justice. Nothing I could do to you is wanton; nothing is too much.
John: Someone's going to save us.
Geoffrey: I can't think who or how or why.
Richard: He isn't going to see me beg. He'll get no satisfaction out of me.
Geoffrey: Why, you chivalric fool -- as if the way one fell down mattered.
Richard: When the fall is all there is, it matters.
Geoffrey: Swear on something. I'm agog to hear what you consider holy.
Henry: We're in the cellar and you're going back to prison and my life is wasted and we've lost each other and you're smiling.
Eleanor: It's the way I register despair. There's everything in life but hope.
Henry: You know, I hope we never die.
Eleanor: I hope so, too.
Henry: You think there's any chance of it?
Alais: When can I believe you, Henry?
Henry: Always; even when I lie.
Alais: How much is it safe to hope for?
Henry: Everything.
Alais: But with so many enemies--
Henry: I know-- and some of them are smarter folk than I or crueler or more ruthless or dishonest. But not all rolled into one. The priests write all the history these days and they'll do me justice. Henry, they'll say, was a master bastard. Extending his arm Come; let's go downstairs and meet the family.
Eleanor: Have we seen the French King yet?
Geoffrey: Not yet.
Eleanor: Let's hope he's grown up like his father -- simon pure and simon simple. Good, good Louis; if I'd managed sons for him instead of all those little girls, I'd still be stuck with being Queen of France and we should not have known each other. Such, my angels, is the role of sex in history.
Eleanor: Henry, I have a confession.
Henry: Yes?
Eleanor: I don't much like our children.
Eleanor: Did you rehearse all this or are you improvising?
Henry: Good God, woman, face the facts.
Eleanor: Which ones? We've got so many.
John: The woods are full of chancellors.
Geoffrey: And the castle's full of kings.
Richard: You are Medea to the tooth but this is one son you won't use for vengeance on your husband,
Eleanor: I could bend you. I could wear you like a bracelet -- but I'd sooner die.
Eleanor: See? You do remember. I taught you dancing, too, and languages and all the music that I knew and how to love what's beautiful. The sun was warmer then and we were every day together.
Philip: I see I'm early for my audience. Or am I late?
Geoffrey: No, you're exquisitely on time. I feel the strangest sense of kinship with you, Philip.
Philip: So you've sensed it, too.
Geoffrey: How far around the corner were you?
Philip: How'd you know?
Geoffrey: You came in so conveniently.
Philip: I'll learn.
Eleanor: The boy keeps wondering if your promises are good.
Henry: There's no use asking if the air's good when there's nothing else to breathe.
Eleanor: I even made poor Louis take me on the Crusade. How's that for blasphemy? I dressed my maids as Amazons and rode bare-breasted halfway to Damascus. Louis had a seizure and I damn near died of windburn but the troops were dazzled.
Henry: She'll never marry, not while I'm alive.
Philip: Your life and never are two different times.
Henry: Not on my clock, boy.
Henry: When? I'm fifty now. My God, boy. I'm the oldest man I know. I've got a decade on the pope. What's it going to be? The broadsword when I'm eighty-five?
Eleanor: May I watch you kiss her?
Henry: Can't you ever stop?
Eleanor: I watch you every night. I conjure it before I sleep.
Henry: Leave it at that.
Eleanor: My curiosity is intellectual: I want to see how accurate I am.
Henry: (To Alais) Forget the dragon in the doorway; come. (Holding her) Believe I love you. Belive I'm yours forever, for I am. Belive in my contentment and the joy you give me and believe-- (To Eleanor) You want more? (Their eyes burn at each other. Then, turning slowly back to Alais) I'm in old man in an empty place. Be with me.
(They kiss. Eleanor stands in the doorway, watching.)
Eleanor: I'd hang you from the nipples but you'd shock the children.
Eleanor: I read minds. In yours, a shapely hand is writing, "Clever Mother, what's your clever reason for all this clever talk?" It isn't clever, but you'll make it so. I'm so sick of all of you.
Eleanor: Of course he's got a knife. He always has a knife. We all have knives. It is eleven eighty-three and we're barbarians. How clear we make it.
Eleanor: Where's that mirror? I am Eleanor and I can look at anything. My, what a lovely girl. How could her king have left her?
Geoffrey: (Indicating the tapestry) May we?
Philip: That's what tapestries are for.
Henry: My life, when it is writtn, will read better than it lived. Henry Fitz-Empress, first Plantagenet, a king at twenty-one, the ablest soldier of an able time. He led men well, he cared for justice when he could and ruled, for thirty years, a state as great as Charlemagne's. He married, out of love, a woman out of legend. Not in Alexandria or Rome or Camelot has there been such a queen. She bore him many children -- but no sons. King Henry had no sons. He had three whiskered things but he disowned them. You're not mine. We're not connected. I deny you. None of you will get my crown. I leave you nothing and wish you plague. May all your children breech and die. (Moving unsteadily toward the door) My boys are gone. I've lost my boys. (Stopping, glaring up) You dare to damn me, do you? Well, I damn you back. God man you. All my boys are gone. I've lost my boys. Oh Jesus, all my boys.
Alais: Did you love Henry -- ever?
Eleanor: Ever? Back before the flood?
Alais: As long ago as Rosamund.
Eleanor: Ah, that's pre-history, lamb; there are no written records or survivors.
Henry: I'm vilifying you, for God's sake. Pay attention/
Eleanor: Well, every family has one.
Henry: But not four.
Eleanor: I adored you.
Henry: Never.
Eleanor: I still do.
Henry: Of all the lies, that's the most terrible.
Eleanor: I know; that's why I saved it up for now.
Eleanor: I could peel you like a pear and God himself would call it justice. Nothing I could do to you is wanton; nothing is too much.
John: Someone's going to save us.
Geoffrey: I can't think who or how or why.
Richard: He isn't going to see me beg. He'll get no satisfaction out of me.
Geoffrey: Why, you chivalric fool -- as if the way one fell down mattered.
Richard: When the fall is all there is, it matters.
Geoffrey: Swear on something. I'm agog to hear what you consider holy.
Henry: We're in the cellar and you're going back to prison and my life is wasted and we've lost each other and you're smiling.
Eleanor: It's the way I register despair. There's everything in life but hope.
Henry: You know, I hope we never die.
Eleanor: I hope so, too.
Henry: You think there's any chance of it?
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13/1/07 22:29 (UTC)