The Libertine Page #7

And that's why the great epic about my reign

became a squalid little play about knobbing.

And that's why Downs died.

l thought about putting you in the Tower.

l even considered putting your head on a spike.

But l've decided on something worse.

l'm going to ignore you

l will no longer encourage

any hope in my breast for you .

l am condemning you to be you ,

for the rest of your days

How l hate the country.

Drink.

Drink!

The shelves are empty, my lord.

Go to the cellars, c*nt!

l said, find me a f***ing drink.

Are you unable to discharge your duties

as housekeeper?

ALCOCK:
l fear this is the last my lord

Elizabeth, why has the cellar

not been replenished?

Leave us.

Leave us!

My lady.

l am ever your last resort. When your mistress

has kicked you into the street

and the last whore in Covent Garden

refuses to attend to you ,

then and only then do you come to me!

l think you will never be a contented woman

until you are a much-respected widow.

And l am hard at work

on doing you that last good service.

l don 't want you to die!

l want you to live, and live differently!

- Ow!

- Stop it!

Elizabeth!

Why? lf it's good for you ,

is it not good for me, too?

- lt is not good for me.

- Why then do you pursue that path?

When were you last a sober man ?

Three years...

No, four...

Four years ago.

Five. Five.

And are you not, John , a rational man ?

Has not your intellect been widely praised?

lt has.

So, this man of intellect,

this rational man ,

knowing that five years of constant drinking

have rendered his body feeble and his spirit low,

what would this man of intellect do?

- You seek to trap me like a cunning lawyer!

- What would he do?

He would desist! C*nt!

Yes, he would desist. And those he loved,

would they not show their love

by beseeching him to desist?

lt is not so simple, my darling.

l've heard men say that the devil is in you .

lf that be so, l know how he made his entrance.

He has suffered much

both in sickness and in reputation .

You're a man of God.

Bring my son to him.

My son,

God has seen fit

to visit these terrible diseases on you .

But it torments me less as a mother

to see you die in agony in the arms of God...

..than live an atheist.

Mother.

lf God wants men to have faith,

why does he not make us

more disposed to believe?

Most men are so disposed.

But not me.

Because you set your reason against religion .

I despised reason.

You clung to reason .

You laughed in the face of God

with the aid of reason .

Speak me that speech again .

Those words from lsaiah.

''And he is despised and rejected of men .

A man of sorrows...

..and acquainted with grief.''

And we hid our faces from him.

God, raise me from this bed

to do what l must do

We've taken soundings.

lt's very close. We may be 1 5 votes short.

The House cannot give way to the King

on this matter!

Then get me 1 5 votes.

And l believe it will not!

Hear, hear!

The Earl of Rochester.

Coward!

Coward

My lord...

..the bill before us would seek to bar

the King's brother from succeeding to the throne

on the grounds that he is a Catholic.

And for this reason i has been said

that no good Protestant

can speak against this bill.

And yet, sir, l cannot forbear

to offer some objections against it.

But the question will arise

in the minds of some lords here present...

..as to whether l am indeed...

..a good Protestant.

No man here

will question , l hope,

my goodness...

..in any one of the three chief pursuits

of our age,

the scribbling of verses,

the emptying of bottles,

and the filling of wenches.

There may be those

with a claim to be as good as l,

but taking these three pursuits simultaneously...

..and, sir, l have so taken them,

and can vouch

that considerable manual dexterity is required,

l cannot be equalled, let alone bettered.

So, let not my goodness be questioned.

lt is not so many years

since our present king's father

..was killed on a kind of stage,

outside the walls of this very building.

And, in time, his murderers were condemned

and themselves executed.

But...

were they condemned without being heard?

They were not.

ln spite of the certainty of their guilt

and the horrid weight of their cowardly crime,

they were allowed the due process of law.

But what is suggested before this House...

..is that we condemn

that murdered king's second son

with less shrift than was given to his killers.

My lord, let us have justice.

When the time arrives for our good

and present king to be taken from us

let then his Catholic brother be impeached

in this House in the normal way.

And if he be found wanting,

then let his head be chopped off at the neck...

if the House feel that is what he meris

For my part

l shall believe my oath of allegiance

to the throne to be a thing inviolable...

..and that whatever the faith

of the successor to the throne,

his pre-eminence in the royal lineage

must hold sway

over all other considerations.

Sir,

my humble motion ...

..is that the monarchy...

be upheld...

..and this meddlesome and fractious bill

be thrown out forever.

Hear, hear!

Kings are kings!

You can 't pick and choose!

Throw it out! Throw it out!

He spoke for us all!

Johnny.

You did it.

You finally did something for me.

l didn 't do it for you .

l did it for me.

Your Majesty, we won .

By 40 votes.

There you are, Johnny.

You did it.

Molly.

l've brought in the Earl to gawp at my triumph.

Authors have a place, Mr Etherege.

lt is in the garret.

l do not like them cluttering up my theatre.

Lizzie won 't see him.

She won 't see Johnny. This is the only way.

l don 't want her upset.

l could have written a splendid play.

No, you couldn 't.

The Man Of Mode.

The spirit of the age caught for all time.

l did it.

You didn 't, because you don 't have the gift.

Gentle George.

- What is he doing here?

- Don 't blame me.

John , l'll see you after. l'll be at Long's.

Very well. Lockett's?

Long's.

Long's.

l saw the first two acts.

And you didn 't like me?

To the contrary.

l could bear your brilliance no longer.

Mr Harris, you are playing me.

The understudy has become the actor.

My lord, l heard news of your death

six months ago

and experienced a spasm of regret.

But your subsequent resurrection

has quite cured my grief.

l am nature, and you are art.

Let us see how we compare.

Mr Harris has a quick change

and you will let him be.

Here we have him, your Restoration gent.

He's not pissed his breeches today

and he can walk in a straight line for 200 yards

without falling on his face and retching.

Now,

look you upon this picture

and on this

He has not washed He cannot walk

And he most certainly will not be able to raise

either the price of his dinner or his own pintle.

l must be got into my nightgown .

This is what l envy in you stage people.

You make time seem so important.

l must change my clothes now!

l must make my entrance now!

But life is not a succession of urgent nows.

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