Cartesius Page #3

---

And this is why I believe in the devil.

Double six, I've won.

Lord of Candal

permit me to present

my friend Rene Descartes

to you, Landlord of Peron.

You are welcome. Mr Descartes

would you like to taste some tea,

the drink the Dutch

ships bring us back from China

Thank you.

It's also said to be very healthy.

Oh Yes. In fact my doctor

recommended me to drink some

At least 50 cups a day.

Too many perhaps. Please.

I always carry the Santum Regnum,

a precious book, in my pockets

one of the scientific proofs

of the ignorance and hypocrisy

of our century. Were you not

friends, I would be careful

to show it to you because there are

still many in France

who amuse themselves setting up

pyres for heretics and witches.

Ah I see that you're afraid.

Well, that makes me happy.

People who know fear are wise.

Listen, it's a scientific book.

A person who longs to make a pact with

hell, chooses which devil to call up

It's not right to disturb Satan ,

if a lesser infernal power

is sufficient to satisfy your desires.

There, as you see, discretion

is a necessary virtue,

even in hell.

For the evocation the

following is prescribed.

A blood stone

sold at the chemist's

and two blessed wax candles.

There is also a prayer

of certain effect.

Oh Lord Lucifer,

lord of the rebel spirits,

I beg for your help,

and I call your Minister

Lucifugero to

stipulate a contract with him.

Make me appear in human form

and without a bad smell.

Well, don't you think

it's just mad exaggeration

which even the court,

unfortunately worries itself about

and about which the Sorbonne

holds theological debates.

It's absurd.

It's nothing to be amazed about.

At Paris everything is discussed.

You can't peacefully

use your own reason

because you always find someone

willing to demonstrate

that there exists a truth more true

than another with a thousand quibbles.

We should free ourselves

from the Advisors of the Crown,

the Members of the Curia,

the Jesuits and the Dominicans,

the learned men of the Sorbonne and

the influential courtiers.

And also Mr Diluinne,

the king's favourite.

Right.

Don't be amazed Sir,

they are honoured gentlemen,

but they cannot stand neither priests,

nor the Spanish party nor Jesuits,

which are in fact the same thing.

Above all, they want to be free.

Mr De Someuse knows them

well, he's one of them.

I'm Guez De Balzac.

I congratulate you Mr Descartes,

I listened to you at

the Minimi convent

and I must acknowledge your courage.

Mr De Clave was condemned

for having said things

much less prudent than

your speech in public.

I wouldn't have imagined it.

Gentlemen!

Will you not also toast

Maurizio of Nassau.

And why should we?

He prepares a new army,

he freed Holland from prejudices,

brought it to trade

and kicked out the

pedantic priests,

his is the only land on

earth where Calvinists

and Catholics live together, without

giving each other too much irritation.

Don't take any notice

of what he's saying.

Everybody knows that

our great Teofilde Dio,

the poet of liberty

gets fired up easily.

To tell the truth,

very few Catholics have

remained in Holland.

I am happy to toast

Maurizio of Nassau with you

but above all I toast you

because I appreciate and

love your splendid poetry.

I thank you for the compliment

but I warn you that

adulation bothers me.

What I would really like

is to find a true friend,

ready to drink with me.

Do you also intend to enroll

among the Catholics of

the Prince of Nassau.

The best of the youth of Paris,

wants nothing else today,

than to go to the Low Countries

and to fight under his flags,

but I prefer to

remain here in Paris,

I wouldn't know how to

live without her salons.

Mr Descartes has come a long way

from the teaching he received

from the reverend Fathers

from the company of Jesus.

Rebellion against the teaching

of the ancients frees the world.

But the way the ancients

mapped out in the search for

the truth seems to me ever more

full of confusion with every day.

We need to write new books,

to raise men up with poetry,

which is freedom because of its nature.

We must try to prevent falsehoods

coming to us

from the books of the ancients.

Often when the ancients

were faced with problems

they didn't know

the answers to

they demonstrated an

error as the truth,

sustaining their theses with

highly subtle arguments.

I want to come and listen to you and to

be able to put these questions to you

if you would honour me with

giving me your address.

I live in Rue Du Foulle

at Mr Le Vasseur's house.

I thank you.

Find a place at the table for

Mr Descartes and let him play.

Mr De Balzac loves

liberty so much

that he even cannot

stand his garters.

I have heard that

you do not intend

to serve under Maurizio

of Nassau, it that true?

Indeed.

You're making a

bad mistake sir.

The only European countries

where there is still

a residue of liberty

are Venice and Holland.

Venice is a Republic

where trade happens

and they certainly do not discuss

the creeds of their customers,

like in the Low Countries

where Maurizio of Nassau

crushed the Spanish

Inquisition enjoying the help

of the most valorous

soldiers of France,

who were mainly Catholics

D o you want to start to play?

Messrs. Balzac and Someuse

have come to visit you.

Let them come in.

Please excuse this

interruption sir,

but we know that Descartes

lives in your home.

Mr Descartes has

hidden himself,

he left me without

saying anything to me.

His servant came to find

me in great secret.

He said that his master

had gone to hide himself

in some suburb

and that he hadn't come out

of his room for many days.

I confess that I 'm worried.

A kind of fire must

have invaded his brain.

Because of the friendship that ties me

to his father, I believe I am authorised

to violate his retreat, and was

precisely just going to do that.

Would you like to accompany me?

Be careful down there!

We've been walking for more than

half an hour, without ever arriving.

This is the place.

Here. You've made us

cross Paris to find him.

Who is it?

Your friend Le Mersenne

in the company of Mr

De Balzac and Mr Someuse.

Ah come in!

Dear friend, I confess that

having remained for so long

without any news from you,

I feared you were ill.

We met your servant by chance

who led us all the way to

you, unwittingly, I must say.

I am moved by your concern ,

but don't be alarmed,

I'm very well.

I closed myself into this

room alone for many days

and reflected

on every moment of my

life that I can remember

and have reached this conclusion.

I absolutely must free

myself from my infancy

if I want to succeed

in knowing

what human reason

is capable of.

I want to give you a piece of news sirs,

and you are the first to hear it.

I have decided to abandon my books

and to go to Holland,

to enroll in Maurizio

of Nassau's army

like many other young Frenchmen.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes