David and Bathsheba Page #4

DAVID:
The law calls you his.

That is not worthy of you, David.

It tears my heart

to suggest such a thing.

But it is your life, beloved.

Your life.

It is shameful what you ask.

There is no shame too great...

...no act so vile

that I would not commit it...

...if it would save my love.

[CYMBALS RATTLING]

[CHATTERING]

It is late and our guest must be weary

from the road.

DAVID:

Come, Uriah.

Absalom, it is many days

since we have seen you at the palace.

I have been in Judah, sire,

tending to my vines.

And do you expect a good yield

from your vines?

I have no reason

to be dissatisfied, sire.

In such a bad year.

You're to be congratulated.

- I should like a word with you in private.

URIAH:
I am at my king's service.

I will not keep you long.

You must be eager to go home

to your wife.

- You said the attack is planned.

- Yes, sire.

Joab's confident

it'll meet with success.

He promises you Rabbah

within a week, sire.

With your permission, I plan

to return to camp early tomorrow...

...so that I may lead

my hundred into the battle.

As you wish. Abishai will have

dispatches for you to carry.

But if you desire

to remain in Jerusalem longer...

My only desire is to serve my king.

Well, I might believe that,

but you have a wife.

My wife is nothing, sire,

beside my duty.

Sit down, Uriah.

They say she is very beautiful.

As women go.

A woman does not always share

her husband's devotion to duty.

Have you ever tried to think of things

from her point of view?

No, sire.

But supposing her wishes and yours

come into conflict?

A woman's wishes cannot conflict

with her husband's, sire.

- That is the law.

- The law.

The law can only control

what we do...

...not what we think.

What does your wife think, Uriah?

[CHORTLES]

I do not know, sire.

Is it possible that you believe

that she does not think or feel?

A woman is flesh and blood,

Uriah, like us.

Perhaps more so because we give her so

little to think of but matters of the flesh.

In all our history,

only a handful of women...

...have been permitted

to write their names beside the men.

Miriam, Deborah, Jael,

perhaps one or two more.

A woman's occupation

is her husband...

...and her life is her love.

But if her husband rejects her love,

if he puts another love before it...

...if he denies her the only meaning

that her life can have...

...is it not understandable

if she seeks a meaning for it elsewhere?

With another man?

- Yes.

- Lf she does, she breaks the law.

But if her husband feels pity for her...

...under the law,

he is the one who must condemn her.

Then it is doubly his duty to be sure

that the law is obeyed.

Would you condemn your own wife,

Uriah?

Bathsheba?

[LAUGHS]

That is not possible.

But if it were possible?

I would not hesitate to do my duty,

sire.

You would force her

to suffer the most horrible of deaths?

Let the mob drive her like a dog...

...through the streets

to the city gates?

Watch the cruel stones

strike her flesh, let...?

Yes, sire...

...if she had broken the law.

I've kept you too long from your bed.

You may go.

URIAH:

Sire...

...will you grant me a boon?

What is your wish?

When Abishai prepares

the dispatches...

...let him say this to Joab

in your name:

"Set Uriah in the forefront

of the hottest battle...

...that he may serve his king

to the utmost of his ability. "

I will consider it, Uriah.

My thanks, sire.

MICHAL:

You are up late, David.

DAVID:

So are you.

I thought I might be of comfort

to my husband.

It's a terrible thing

to know that your beloved...

...is in the arms of another.

Do not trouble to lie.

You see, I know your secret.

Yours and the lady Bathsheba's.

- You know nothing.

- The lady has servants.

Servants tell things to other servants

and they tell them to their mistresses.

So the daughter of Saul concocts

a fantasy from servants' gossip.

Bathsheba's condition is no fantasy.

And the child she carries is yours.

Oh, my husband, I guessed at once

why you had sent for Uriah.

Only David would have thought of it.

A clever trick.

- Worthy of the son of goatherds.

- Get out.

You cannot save Bathsheba now.

Your scheme has failed.

Uriah has not been to his house

all night.

Even now, he sleeps here in the palace

with the officers of your guard.

Sire, forgive me.

- I have slept late.

- I told you to go home.

I ask your pardon, sire.

I could not go to my wife.

Why not?

It's a matter of my own worthiness.

Perhaps you will

consider this foolish...

...but when Joab told me

I was to come to Jerusalem...

...I swore an oath on my sword.

URIAH:
I swore that while the army

still slept in tents...

...while Rabbah still stood in defiance

of God's will...

...I would deny myself the comforts

and the pleasures of my own house.

URIAH:

I would keep myself clean for battle...

...as if for entering the tabernacle

of the Ark.

I am sorry if I have offended my king.

If the dispatches are ready, I will go.

You fool.

DAVID:

You stupid, blind fool.

Sire.

Dispatches for Joab, sire.

Dispatches.

Shall I give them to Uriah?

No.

No.

DAVID:

There is an additional order.

Set Uriah in the forefront

of the hottest battle.

It is his own wish, Abishai.

Even his own words.

Is that all?

No.

I will not add hypocrisy

to my other sins.

Even if Joab should understand

what I intend...

...I cannot ask him to share

the burden of my guilt.

Here is the order:

Set Uriah in the forefront

of the hottest battle...

...and retire from him

that he may be smitten and die.

- Yes.

- When it is finished...

...seal it and give it to Uriah.

Yes, sire.

Sire, we bring great news.

The walls of Rabbah

have been breached.

When we left, there was fighting

in the streets of the city.

Joab bids me urge you

to come to Rabbah with all speed...

...to receive the surrender

of your enemies.

And our dead?

Our losses have been heavy, sire.

Of the captains of a thousand:

Abimelech the son of Jurabiel,

and Heled the son of Ikkesh.

Of the captains of a hundred:

Hezro the Carmelite...

...Igal the son of Zelek...

...Ittai the son of Ribai...

...Abiel the Arbathite...

...Eliam the son of Reuben...

...Shammah the Harodite...

...Uriah the Hittite...

...Bani the Gadite...

...Azmaveth the son of Eli...

...and many more are wounded.

How did Uriah the Hittite die?

IRA:

There was a mistake in the orders, sire.

Uriah advanced too far into the breach

and was cut off from his command.

When you've eaten and rested, prepare

to return to Rabbah, I'll ride with you.

Sire.

Sire, the lady Bathsheba's servant

is waiting for your answer.

Go to Bathsheba.

Tell her that Uriah is dead.

Tell her to prepare for our marriage...

...at the end of her month

of mourning.

Will you not go to her yourself?

No.

The hand of God

is heavy on his people.

Thus speaks the Lord:

"I will withhold the rains...

...and cause the fields

and vineyards to dry up...

...the flocks to grow thin.

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