Goltzius and the Pelican Company Page #8

---

to save you from yourself.

When, in fact, it was the Devil

impersonating an angel

to be certain you abased yourself

beyond all your current hopes.

There was no reprieve

for the Christ you wanted to be.

Nobody came to save Christ.

Nobody!

Nobody at all.

So why should anyone

come to save you?

No reprieve.

But we can drown you.

Now you will not burn at the stake

for permitting sodomy.

You will drown instead.

- Can you swim?

- I-I can't. I can't.

- Master Cleaver...

- I can't swim.

- You can't swim?

- I don't know.

No, then you will surely drown.

F*ggot!

Miserable imitation Christ!

The fifth sexual taboo -

prostitution.

Love exchanged for money.

Accompanied here by treachery.

It is a little theatrical

presentation that demonstrates...

Delilah.

Delilah is the established

byword for treachery.

"The treacherous woman."

She sells Samson

for a prophetic thirty pieces of silver.

What else do you have

that may be described

as pertinent to Samson, Rabbi Moab?

- I cannot consort with you.

- I think you can, Rabbi Moab.

Isn't that

what you have been wanting to do

these past four evenings?

And because you are Susannah

I will not give in to the demands

of other men's lechery.

I am not in danger of committing

sins of the flesh with you,

with my body, but only with my mind.

Although God can see my mind

and will excoriate me mercilessly,

no one else will know.

My fight will be with God alone,

and He knows that,

and I know that.

But it will exist only between us.

No one else will know.

What is all this whispering?

Is this your text, Rabbi,

or the heretic's?

I think the Rabbi is searching, my lord,

to find words to condone

his lechery for me.

Let him.

And I feel that he will rise

to the occasion

and we shall all be entertained.

Let us begin as accustomed lovers do.

Come here. Let me kiss you.

Ooh, you stink!

Susannah,

it is the dead Calvinist who stinks!

You are in need of a wash.

- Now, take off your armour.

- I protest.

Save your voice, lover,

and let me do the talking.

God will understand

that you are being forced.

God will not accept actions

made under torture.

Am I tortured?

I am tortured.

What of this body?

What is it that permits you

your great strength?

- I believe in God.

- So do I.

But I am a weak woman.

Does he make me strong

because I believe in him?

I see! God believes in me!

There now.

Are you and your God satisfied?

You are still Susannah and not Delilah.

And those two women

are great distances apart.

Now tell me, Samson,

what is the reason for your strength?

- I have lost it with you.

- That is not the answer I want.

Tell me!

Tell me the source of your strength.

In the story of Samson,

it was said that Samson's hair

gave him his strength.

Shave it and he would become weak.

I don't believe in such tales.

They are symbolic.

Metaphors.

His strength, like mine,

relies in a belief in God.

I have been celibate all of my life.

I feel already without strength.

I feel weak and vulnerable.

- Quickly! He is yours!

- No!

- Do not blind me!

- Don't touch his eyes!

- Don't blind him!

- Do not blind me!

All men are brought low by lechery.

NOW!

Your critics

have been silenced, Margrave.

Look at them!

One gagged, one dead, one blinded.

Bravo!

What of your reputation now

for liberality of speech?

In the face of heresy and treason,

I have no choice.

Of course you have choice!

You are not threatened.

Why turn these harmless dramas

into vicious games of politics?

The games of the flesh

are small, superficial.

We are like children

playing games with our anatomy.

You make these games significant

in ways that suggest you fear them.

And do you not think

that the stories of the Bible

are surely written by men?

And is not their purpose to guide

and advise by metaphor

and not by literal truth?

Sorry-

The story of Samson is to show

how all men can be deceived by women.

I am one of these perfidious

women who so deceive.

And I have a choice to make.

We are going to make a move

to the New Testament.

We are going to play the drama

of John the Baptist and Salome!

- No, we are not Adaela.

- Goltzius, I decide.

No. We are illustrating

the Old Testament in print and drama.

We are not breaking the conditions

of our commission!

Oh, Goltzius, this time I decide.

We are performing Jewish tales

and not Christian tales.

Come, come, Goltzius!

They're all Jews!

And, therefore, all Jewish tales.

I'm going to dance for you in recompense

for the insult you believe

you have received.

I will play Salome.

You will play Herod.

The dance of the seven veils?

You will dance for me?

- How will you dance for me?

- Oh, you know the story.

I will dance for you

as Salome danced for Herod.

Seductive.

Voluptuous, immoral.

How can I refuse?

I accept, I will play Herod.

Ecclesiastical friends

and companions of religious toleration

in this liberated country of Alsace,

tonight we present to you

the last of our biblical dramas,

all of them tales of morality

that troubled our Jewish

and Christian forebears,

and laid down examples

for our moral education.

By special request,

tonight, we present a tale

from the enlightened New Testament

that has great moral lessons

worthy of the Old Testament to teach us.

The story, no less,

of Johannes the Baptist

and Princess Salome,

the beautiful daughter-in-law

of Herodus the Great,

King of the Jews by Roman decree.

May I present to you

none less than the Margrave of Alsace,

who has graciously agreed

to play the great King Herodus.

And this on the day

when the Margrave's

esteemed uncle, Ricardo,

has been appointed

as Cardinal of Alsace -

an honour that I am certain,

will be well received

and appreciated by us all.

Go away!

So...

...the sixth sexual taboo -

necrophilia.

Am I to see Salome's love of the dead?

More! Dance for me again.

It was too quick.

Dance the same dance again.

I promised to dance for you, and I did.

- Enough.

- I will pay you.

I will pay The Pelican Company well.

I will grant The Pelican Company

all they want.

Goltzius shall have his printing press.

I will commission

a thousand books.

It was me who danced for you,

not The Pelican Company.

For you, then.

For you.

What do you want me to give you?

Ask me a price.

- Anything?

- Ha ha! Anything!

Lust makes you untrustworthy,

as lust makes all men untrustworthy.

Ask me!

- Ask me for anything.

- Very well.

I will dance for you again,

if you release my lover, Boethius.

No. Never.

- He's a heretic.

- Then, no.

I'm leaving.

The price of my dancing is his freedom.

- No, stop.

- No.

I... I'll give you jewels.

Money. Gold.

There is only one thing I want.

I will give you...

...the county of Haguenau Forest.

Four cities, three castles,

30,000 citizens, and...

and... taxes for a year

on the salt from the salt mines.

I will give you half my kingdom.

I want my lover, Boethius.

Nothing else.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes