Tulip Fever Page #3

(loud, overlapping crowd chatter)

- Get his arm. Get his arm on it.

(indistinct chatter, water dripping)

- Get him up!

- Oh, I get him.

- Pull!

(indistinct chatter)

- MAN:
Took his own life over a tulip bulb.

(distant chatter, bird singing)

(sighs)

(footsteps approaching)

- What have you got there?

- I've had a letter from Mr. Van Loos.

- The painter has written to you?

- Yes.

- What has the fellow got to write to you about? Let me see.

- CORNELIS:
The audacity.

(laughing)

- The painter writes to ask for my tulips. What do you say to that? Your week's wages wouldn't pay for them.

- That could say something about my wages.

- SOPHIA:
He only asks to borrow them before they lose their bloom.

- You should let him, sir, if you want their likeness.

- Well, you can take them to him in the morning.

- Uh, first day of the month tomorrow. I have plans with my mother. Breakfast will be under a cheesecloth in the larder.

(footsteps retreating)

- CORNELIS:
Well, my dear, would you mind taking Mr. Van Loos my tulips? Tell him I want them back by close of day.

MAN:
Come on, hurry up!

Hurry up!

(loud, indistinct chatter and shouting)

(indistinct shouting and chatter continues)

(knocking)

(woman laughing outside, distant chatter)

(Sophia's breath quivers)

(Sophia gasps slightly)

(Sophia sighs)

(Sophia gasps, Jan gasps)

(both panting)

(Sophia gasps)

You may rest, Mr. Sandvoort.

(both panting)

(Sophia gasps)

(Sophia gasping)

- May I?

- My wife tells me our portrait pleases.

(Sophia gasps)

(both panting, Sophia sighs)

(laughs)

- You've caught her beauty, sir, as well as her innocence and purity.

(Jan sighs)

- My wife cannot abide a compliment to herself.

- Is that so, Mrs. Sandvoort?

(Sophia gasps slightly)

(Sophia gasps)

(Sophia moans, both breathing heavily)

(Sophia moaning)

(both breathing heavily)

- If you will.

(both breathing heavily)

(Sophia moaning)

(both breathing heavily)

(Sophia moans)

(Jan moans)

(both breathing heavily, moaning)

- First to flower, first to fall.

(birds singing)

(birds singing, bell tolling)

(geese honking)

- Sister, uh, the abbess, please.

- In the garden.

- Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

(geese honking)

- You're late, young man.

(sniffs)

- And Lord save us, you smell of fish.

- Mr. Prater says you know your business, so look sharp.

- The gate's locked at sundown.

- I am Willem Brok.

- Do you mind staying downwind?

(groans)

(donkey braying)

- Uh, I-I bought a parcel of his whites. He said I should come here to get the certificate countersigned.

- Oh, so you're not the rat catcher?

- No. No.

- Would you kindly take me to the abbess, please?

- Well, unless you have a pen and ink pot about you, follow me.

(pig snorting, cow lowing)

(child choir singing in distance)

- ls this an orphanage?

- We take them in off the streets, feed them, school them, and send them out to fend for themselves as kitchen maids, scullery maids...

(hisses sharply)

- They find husbands, or worse, or remain here as novices.

(squeaking)

- Ugh, the nerve of it. Oh...

(inhaling)

- Mm, that's better. No offense. A Gouda, red and yellow. The least rare of rarities, but our prize tulip so far. The purple and white lords it above the Gouda, but top of the scale is the crimson and white.

(chuckles)

- That's rarely seen. St. Ursula's has been growing tulips for the flower market for years and years. Single-colored tulips by the bushel.

- I paid 18 florins for these whites. I'm told if they continue to rise, in a month they'll be worth double.

- Mm. Let's see.

- "Abbess" is a courtesy title.

- I see. Forgive me.

- 50 whites, just come into bloom. W. Brok. 18 florins. Hmm. A month ago, you could have had them for ten.

(indistinct conversations)

- Beautiful. What's that? That one?

- A miracle. It's a breaker.

- WILLEM:
A breaker?

- Mr. Prater. You appear to have sold off 49 whites and one crimson and white for 18 florins. God forgive me.

- God might. But I wish He, for once, wouldn't work in mysterious ways. Cut the flower and sell the bulb. You have a rare one.

(bell clangs in distance)

(bell clanging)

- Eh, who are you? This is Willem's patch.

- Not anymore. He sold it to me.

- He sold his license?

- And his basket. What would you like today? Fresh bream? How about a length of eel? I've got a nice thick eel.

(footsteps approaching)

- You're not ready. It's 7:00.

- I don't want to go.

- But you enjoy playing cards at the Steens'. Last time you won.

- I feel sick. You go.

- Well, my night is ruined. I suppose we'll need to stay home.

- No. I want you to go. I'm better alone, please. They're your old friends. I feel better if I know you've got good company.

- I'll be home before the watch sounds the trumpet.

(exhales)

(door closes)

(door closes in distance)

DAAN:
The bidding stands at 810 guilders. Are we all done?

- And 20.

- 20.

- MAN:
30.

- 30.

- And 40.

- DAAN:
40.

- 50.

- DAAN:
50!

- 60.

- DAAN:
60.

- 70.

- DAAN:
70.

- So.

- 900!

- DAAN:
900.

- 910.

- DAAN:
910. Are we all done? Anyone for 920? 920. Thank you, Mr. De Bye. Mr. Brok, 920 guilders. Do you accept the bid?

- Yes, sir. I do, sir.

- Please.

- DAAN:
Sold!

DE BYE:

- Well done, Mr. Brok. How much fish must you sell to bring in 920 guilders, hmm?

- How do you know I sell fish?

- Did you already name your flower, Mr. Brok?

- Yes, sir. Admiral Maria.

- Unusual.

PRATER:

- You're a wealthy man, now.

- God loves you, Mr. Brok.

- Well, he must love my Maria, also. "My Maria" now.

- Oh, no, no. My future wife. We're getting married soon. Mr. Prater, I told myself I'd stop after 800 florins.It's more than enough for me, so... for the orphans, please.

- No, certainly not.

- Would you like a hand with that, my darling?

- No, tart.

- PRATER:
You paid a fair price there, sir. It'll drop if Admirals start popping up like daisies. If not, you will double it.

- Next item on the stand, a single Alexandra bulb.

(lively music playing)

Maria!

(indistinct chatter)

Maria!

Maria!

Maria!

(laughter, chatter, coughing)

(passionate gasping)

(chuckling)

- WOMAN:
That baby needs a drop of gin.

(baby crying)

- My own mother used to say...

- Do you know my prize mare is in foal, and De Lesseps, the banker, has paid me a fee to reserve the foal for him to buy for ten Admiral De Keys tulips when it's born.

- Did you agree?

- Of course.

(laughs)

- It's free money. What do you think, Cornelis?

- I think De Lesseps must believe those tulips will be worth nothing...

(cheers)

- nothing by the time he'll get a prize foal for them.

- I love you.

- I love you.

- When I left here, I thought, "Once is everything. I can deny myself now." But then I saw you again, and I thought, "No, twice. Please, God, please twice." Let me look at you.

- Don't move.

- No, Jan.

- It will comfort me when you've gone. You've stolen my heart.

- And you've stolen mine.

- JAN:
Tell me about your family.

- SOPHIA (chuckles): No one's ever asked me that before. A sickness took my parents when I was young. My only family lives across the sea.

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