(Anamae is looking over the script with a look of absolute delight on her face. Vorador, seeing this, walks right over and looks at the text, then at the directress-in-charge-for-the-moment, since the other one is once again out cold, even if she was able to get up for a few moments)
Vorador: Why so happy?
Anamae: Because now I won't have to change the rating from PG to NC-17.
Vorador: What?
Anamae: The scene begins with Romeo and Juliet just finishing the 'act'. So no little kids had to get up and leave their seats and Umah doesn't have to worry about Ariel's rights being infringed upon.
Turel: (Comes by and listens in) So you mean that dad and Ariel don't have to do it?
Anamae: Nope.
Turel: Thank god.
Vorador: I was looking forwards to that!
Light/Sound man: Pervert!
Vorador: Oh, shut up! (Gets a sly look in his eyes) You'll have to tell Kain this, and you know he was actually looking forwards to this scene.
Anamae: (Measured silence) Aw, hell.
(At that moment, Kain comes by and overheard what Vorador was saying to Anamae. He had just finished brushing his hair for the 1,000 time, making it look as fine as silk and had just finished putting on the perfume called 'Scent OF A Love Struck Vampire' now for no use whatsoever. Anger clouds the vampire lord's face)
Kain: Am I to be denied my moment?
Anamae: Yeah, sorry about it Kain but the play must go on as it is. No changes like the ones Dumah tried to put in.
Kain: (Pouting) I was looking forwards to this.
Turel: I am not listening to this! (Plugs his ears and walks away)
Vorador: Kain, come here. (Pulls Kain off to the side) Well, no one said that you have to disregard the whole moment.
Kain: Come again.
Vorador: You and Ariel can still make out like before and while the rating will not go up to NC-17, it'll go to about an M rating. This way, you're satisfied with Ariel, the audience is satisfied and little miss director- (Points to Anamae) -will be none the wiser.
Kain: (Grinning) I like this!
Ariel: (Floating up behind the two vampires) Like what?
(Kain quickly explained the whole thing to Ariel, who by the end was smiling even if half of her face wasn't there. She looked over at Anamae and snickered)
Ariel: And we will defiantly give the audience something to remember. As she said herself, she wants to the play to be new and bold, so there you go.
Kain: (Grinning) Improvisation! You know Ariel, once you let the real you be shown, you're actually a lot of fun to be around with.
Ariel: I know.
Anamae: (Coming up to them) All right, get ready for your scene. (Turns towards Janos who has a bruised lip, Melchiah and Zephon) You guys get ready too!
Zephon: Okay, but just once question for Melchiah.
Melchiah: What?
Zephon: Does this dress make me look fat?
(In the audience, a hell of a lot of people has moved all the way from the back seats to the front ones, pressing people out of the way and even security was having problems holding them back. Suzu was still sitting at the back with Marcus, who was holding up a camcorder)
Suzu: You're going to tape it?
Marcus: For blackmail against Kain, really. At least I haven't moved all the way up front like Sebastian or Faustus.
Suzu: Yeah, that is a little disturbing.
Elder God: Hush. It's very important not to interrupt the mating scene.
Suzu: (Paling) There is going to be no mating scene, you pervert! Go find someone of your own kind and go on a date.
Elder God: Do you know how hard it is to find someone exactly like me?
Lorant: (From the balcony) 120,000,004 to 3?
Elder God: Exactly.
Suzu: (Very near to throwing up) I need to find a new seat!
(The audience begins to cheer as the curtain rises, showing the last scene in this Act. At the same time they take out a bunch of cameras to photo Kain or Ariel, for 'blackmail' purposes as they all say. Riiiiiiight. Nupraptor, upon hearing that Juliet will have to go through such a scene, nearly made a scene himself but was held down by Dejoule and Bane. Moebius, having absolutely no interest in this scene, goes off to the snacks stand early. Of course, as Mortanius said, this only heightens suspicion that the Time Streamer is gay but he didn't say it to everyone in the theatre house while Moebius was in the room. The scene opens to the Capulet orchard, where you can see through the big bay window Kain and Ariel embracing)
Anamae: (Backstage) Well, everyone's going to be disappointed but then that doesn't matter to me. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no! (Sees Ariel and Kain beginning to make out) WHAT THE HELL?!!! This is not called for in the play!
Vorador: (Beside her) Improve, of course!
Anamae: Ack! (Faints dead away as she sees Kain do a move on Ariel that should be considered for an NC-17 rating, but because of certain powers, is only an M rating)
(Kain and Ariel move towards the balcony after making out. The audience grins to themselves and take many a photo shots/camcorder pics and then settle back for the rest of the scene, happy that they got what they wanted, the perverts)
Random Vampire: Oh, shut up!
Random Sarafan: Yeah, everyone needs to chill out once in a while.
Ariel: (Looking at Kain) Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree:
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.
Kain: It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east:
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
Ariel: Yon light is not day-light, I know it, I:
It is some meteor that the sun exhales,
To be to thee this night a torch-bearer,
And light thee on thy way to Mantua:
Therefore stay yet; thou need'st not to be gone.
Kain: (Sighs dramatically) Let me be ta'en, let me be put to death;
I am content, so thou wilt have it so.
I'll say yon grey is not the morning's eye,
'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow;
Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat
The vaulty heaven so high above our heads:
I have more care to stay than will to go:
Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it so.
How is't, my soul? let's talk; it is not day.
Ariel: It is, it is: hie hence, be gone, away!
It is the lark that sings so out of tune,
Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.
Some say the lark makes sweet division;
This doth not so, for she divideth us:
Some say the lark and loathed toad change eyes,
O, now I would they had changed voices too!
Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
Hunting thee hence with hunt's-up to the day,
O, now be gone; more light and light it grows.
Kain: More light and light; more dark and dark our woes!
(Zephon enters into the chamber; Kain turns to hide behind a curtain. The girls in the audience titter amongst themselves, expecting the worse to happen)
Zephon: Madam?
Ariel: Nurse?
Zephon: Your lady mother is coming to your chamber:
The day is broke; be wary, look about.
(Zephon turns to leave and Kain comes out from his hiding place. He and Ariel embrace once again and about three, no four, fan girls faint away from the sweetness of the moment)
Ariel: Then, window, let day in, and let life out.
Kain: (Climbs the edge of the balcony) Farewell, farewell! one kiss, and I'll descend. (Kisses Ariel and goes down)
Ariel: Art thou gone so? love, lord, ay, husband, friend!
I must hear from thee every day in the hour,
For in a minute there are many days:
O, by this count I shall be much in years
Ere I again behold my Romeo!
Kain: Farewell!
I will omit no opportunity
That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.
Ariel: O think'st thou we shall ever meet again?
Kain: I doubt it not; and all these woes shall serve
For sweet discourses in our time to come.
Ariel: O God, I have an ill-divining soul!
Methinks I see thee, now thou art below,
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb:
Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale.
Kain: And trust me, love, in my eye so do you:
Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu!
(Kain goes offstage with an air of such sadness that even some people begin to cry, even Hash'ak'git who was watching from the doorway. Now Vorador, along with Umah's help, had managed to get Anamae out of her faint, but when Kain walked backstage she fainted once again. Seeing Kain make out once with Ariel was bad enough, but twice was enough to send anyone overboard)
Umah: She'll come to during the intermission.
(Back onstage)
Ariel: O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle:
If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him.
That is renown'd for faith? Be fickle, fortune;
For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long,
But send him back.
Melchiah: (Calling within) Ho, daughter! are you up?
Ariel: (Drifting back into the chamber) Who is't that calls? is it my lady mother?
Is she not down so late, or up so early?
What unaccustom'd cause procures her hither?
Melchiah: (Fanning himself) Why, how now, Juliet!
Ariel: (Pretending to feel faint) Madam, I am not well.
Melchiah: Evermore weeping for your cousin's death?
What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears?
An if thou couldst, thou couldst not make him live;
Therefore, have done: some grief shows much of love;
But much of grief shows still some want of wit.
Ariel: Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.
Melchiah: (Coughing slightly; the shrill voice was beginning to hurt after all) So shall you feel the loss, but not the friend
Which you weep for.
Ariel: Feeling so the loss,
Cannot choose but ever weep the friend.
Melchiah: Well, girl, thou weep'st not so much for his death,
As that the villain lives which slaughter'd him.
Ariel: What villain madam?
Melchiah: That same villain, Romeo.
(In the audience)
Faustus: This is getting deep.
Sebastian: Indeed. Somehow I feel Melchiah aka Lady Capulet will lose it somewhere down the line. His voice - excuse me, her voice is a bit too shrill.
Faustus: Might have to feed soon.
Sebastian: One of the choir people, you think?
Faustus: (Winking) I know.
(Onstage)
Ariel: Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands:
Would none but I might venge my cousin's death!
Melchiah: We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not:
Then weep no more. I'll send to one in Mantua,
Where that same banish'd runagate doth live,
Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram,
That he shall soon keep Tybalt company:
And then, I hope, thou wilt be satisfied.
Ariel: Indeed, I never shall be satisfied
With Romeo, till I behold him--dead--
Is my poor heart for a kinsman vex'd.
Madam, if you could find out but a man
To bear a poison, I would temper it;
That Romeo should, upon receipt thereof,
Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors
To hear him named, and cannot come to him.
To wreak the love I bore my cousin
Upon his body that slaughter'd him!
Melchiah: Find thou the means, and I'll find such a man.
But now I'll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.
Ariel: (Tries to smile) And joy comes well in such a needy time:
What are they, I beseech your ladyship?
Melchiah: Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child;
One who, to put thee from thy heaviness,
Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy,
That thou expect'st not nor I look'd not for. Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn,
The gallant, young and noble gentleman,
The County Paris, at Saint Peter's Church,
Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.
(The audience begins to gasp and then boo Melchiah, hissing that anybody making someone marry someone they didn't like was not fair indeed. Some people even went as far to throw stuff at the Clan Lord, but he skilfully sidestepped the popcorn and continued)
Ariel: (Anger apparent in her voice) Now, by Saint Peter's Church and Peter too,
He shall not make me there a joyful bride.
I wonder at this haste; that I must wed
Ere he, that should be husband, comes to woo.
I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam,
I will not marry yet; and, when I do, I swear,
It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
Rather than Paris. These are news indeed!
Melchiah: Here comes your father; tell him so yourself,
And see how he will take it at your hands.
(Janos and Zephon enter again; the Ancient is still sporting a big bruise)
Janos: When the sun sets, the air doth drizzle dew;
But for the sunset of my brother's son
It rains downright.
How now! a conduit, girl? what, still in tears?
Evermore showering? In one little body
Thou counterfeit'st a bark, a sea, a wind;
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is,
Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, thy sighs;
Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them,
Without a sudden calm, will overset
Thy tempest-tossed body. How now, wife!
Have you deliver'd to her our decree?
Melchiah: Ay, sir; but she will none, she gives you thanks.
I would the fool were married to her grave!
Janos: Soft! take me with you, take me with you, wife.
How! will she none? doth she not give us thanks?
Is she not proud? doth she not count her blest,
Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom?
Ariel: Not proud, you have; but thankful, that you have:
Proud can I never be of what I hate;
But thankful even for hate, that is meant love.
Janos: How now, how now, chop-logic! What is this?
'Proud,' and 'I thank you,' and 'I thank you not;'
And yet 'not proud,' mistress minion, you,
Thank me no thankings, nor, proud me no prouds,
But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next,
To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage!
You tallow-face!
(Pretends to slap Ariel across the face; the Seraphim gasp in shock. They don't know that this is part of the play and begin to lash back at Janos)
Zofia: Father, how could you? Juliet doesn't want to marry if she does not love Paris! How could you strike her?
Lorant: Her heart is broken! For once feel a little remorse. I thought you were so cool but now I'm beginning to think differently of you, Janos!
Cili: Janos, you've had so much pain in your life so how can you not feel for poor Juliet!
Janos: It's only a part in the play! This isn't real!
Zofia: I don't want to hear this now! (Sits down fuming with Lorant and Cili casting him the Evil Eye glances)
Melchiah: (Nervously) Okay people, back to the play. Only a little more to do! (Clears his throat) Fie, fie! what, are you mad?
Ariel: (Pretending to cry) Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
Hear me with patience but to speak a word.
Janos: (Shouting at Ariel) Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch!
I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face:
Speak not, reply not, do not answer me;
My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest
That God had lent us but this only child;
But now I see this one is one too much,
And that we have a curse in having her:
Out on her, hilding!
Zephon: God in heaven bless her!
You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.
Janos: (Makes to strike Zephon) And why, my lady wisdom? hold your tongue,
Good prudence; smatter with your gossips, go.
Zephon: I speak no treason.
Janos: O, God ye god-den.
Zephon: May not one speak?
Janos: Peace, you mumbling fool!
Utter your gravity o'er a gossip's bowl;
For here we need it not.
Melchiah: (Restraining Janos's hand) You are too hot.
Janos: God's bread! it makes me mad:
Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play,
Alone, in company, still my care hath been
To have her match'd: and having now provided
A gentleman of noble parentage,
Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train'd,
Stuff'd, as they say, with honourable parts,
Proportion'd as one's thought would wish a man;
And then to have a wretched puling fool,
A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender,
To answer 'I'll not wed; I cannot love,
I am too young; I pray you, pardon me.'
But, as you will not wed, I'll pardon you:
Graze where you will you shall not house with me:
Look to't, think on't, I do not use to jest.
Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advise:
An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend;
And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in
the streets,
For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee,
Nor what is mine shall never do thee good:
Trust to't, bethink you; I'll not be forsworn.
(Janos casts one more look at the sobbing form of Ariel and stalks out of the room and exits the stage. People boo and hiss after him and even the other cast members look at Janos like they've seen someone quite different. It is a side they've never seen to him, after all)
Ariel: Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,
That sees into the bottom of my grief?
O, sweet my mother, cast me not away!
Delay this marriage for a month, a week;
Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed
In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.
Melchiah: (Sneering) Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word:
Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.
(Exits the stage as well with a twist of his head)
Ariel: O God!--O nurse, how shall this be prevented?
My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven;
How shall that faith return again to earth,
Unless that husband send it me from heaven
By leaving earth? comfort me, counsel me.
Alack, alack, that heaven should practise stratagems
Upon so soft a subject as myself!
What say'st thou? hast thou not a word of joy?
Some comfort, nurse.
Zephon: (Hugging Ariel as best as he can despite the dress, makeup and the fact that's she's a ghost) Faith, here it is.
Romeo is banish'd; and all the world to nothing,
That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you;
Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
I think it best you married with the county.
O, he's a lovely gentleman!
Romeo's a dishclout to him: an eagle, madam,
Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye
As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,
I think you are happy in this second match,
For it excels your first: or if it did not,
Your first is dead; or 'twere as good he were,
As living here and you no use of him.
Ariel: Speakest thou from thy heart?
Zephon: And from my soul too;
Or else beshrew them both.
Ariel: Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much.
Go in: and tell my lady I am gone,
Having displeased my father, to Laurence' cell,
To make confession and to be absolved.
Zephon: Marry, I will; and this is wisely done.
(Leaves the stage as well, now Ariel is alone. The audience looks to her and a even a few people have made posters quickly that say 'We Support You Juliet' and others with the words 'Down With Janos' written on them. And this is not of the Sarafan's doing either)
Ariel: Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!
Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,
Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue
Which she hath praised him with above compare
So many thousand times? Go, counsellor;
Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.
I'll to the friar, to know his remedy:
If all else fail, myself have power to die.
(The curtain falls; the 3rd Act is over. Anamae quickly brushes onstage, shielding away from Ariel as best as she can. The horror, oh the horror of it all. The audience is almost in a state of frenzy, wanting to hang Janos)
Anamae: People please be quiet! Get rid of those posters, we're not having a movement going on here!
Random Seraphim: What Janos did was low! Low!
Random Sarafan: Yeah, no girl should be treated like that!
Elder God: Burn him!
Anamae: It's a play people, and he's playing the role as best as possible! You're supposed to hate Lord Capulet, not Janos! Okay? (Mutterings) Now we'll have the intermission for about thirty minutes and everyone can go and stretch, and cool down your tempers. And if I see anyone, ANYONE trying to come back stage to harm Janos, you will not be seeing any more plays done by the Nosgoth Theatre house.
(Everyone files out, sharing their comments and insights about the scene)
Suzu: Anamae.
Anamae: Yeah?
Suzu: Zofia, Lorant and Cili are scaring me. What should I do?
Anamae: Improve. Everyone seems to be doing it now.
Suzu: All right. (Turns to leave, then comes back) For what it's worth, I think Janos is a good actor.
Anamae: Yeah, but he better calm down just a bit because people here take it a bit too far. Go and check on the fire I set during last intermission; put it out if it's still burning.
Suzu: Alright!
Vorador: Why so happy?
Anamae: Because now I won't have to change the rating from PG to NC-17.
Vorador: What?
Anamae: The scene begins with Romeo and Juliet just finishing the 'act'. So no little kids had to get up and leave their seats and Umah doesn't have to worry about Ariel's rights being infringed upon.
Turel: (Comes by and listens in) So you mean that dad and Ariel don't have to do it?
Anamae: Nope.
Turel: Thank god.
Vorador: I was looking forwards to that!
Light/Sound man: Pervert!
Vorador: Oh, shut up! (Gets a sly look in his eyes) You'll have to tell Kain this, and you know he was actually looking forwards to this scene.
Anamae: (Measured silence) Aw, hell.
(At that moment, Kain comes by and overheard what Vorador was saying to Anamae. He had just finished brushing his hair for the 1,000 time, making it look as fine as silk and had just finished putting on the perfume called 'Scent OF A Love Struck Vampire' now for no use whatsoever. Anger clouds the vampire lord's face)
Kain: Am I to be denied my moment?
Anamae: Yeah, sorry about it Kain but the play must go on as it is. No changes like the ones Dumah tried to put in.
Kain: (Pouting) I was looking forwards to this.
Turel: I am not listening to this! (Plugs his ears and walks away)
Vorador: Kain, come here. (Pulls Kain off to the side) Well, no one said that you have to disregard the whole moment.
Kain: Come again.
Vorador: You and Ariel can still make out like before and while the rating will not go up to NC-17, it'll go to about an M rating. This way, you're satisfied with Ariel, the audience is satisfied and little miss director- (Points to Anamae) -will be none the wiser.
Kain: (Grinning) I like this!
Ariel: (Floating up behind the two vampires) Like what?
(Kain quickly explained the whole thing to Ariel, who by the end was smiling even if half of her face wasn't there. She looked over at Anamae and snickered)
Ariel: And we will defiantly give the audience something to remember. As she said herself, she wants to the play to be new and bold, so there you go.
Kain: (Grinning) Improvisation! You know Ariel, once you let the real you be shown, you're actually a lot of fun to be around with.
Ariel: I know.
Anamae: (Coming up to them) All right, get ready for your scene. (Turns towards Janos who has a bruised lip, Melchiah and Zephon) You guys get ready too!
Zephon: Okay, but just once question for Melchiah.
Melchiah: What?
Zephon: Does this dress make me look fat?
(In the audience, a hell of a lot of people has moved all the way from the back seats to the front ones, pressing people out of the way and even security was having problems holding them back. Suzu was still sitting at the back with Marcus, who was holding up a camcorder)
Suzu: You're going to tape it?
Marcus: For blackmail against Kain, really. At least I haven't moved all the way up front like Sebastian or Faustus.
Suzu: Yeah, that is a little disturbing.
Elder God: Hush. It's very important not to interrupt the mating scene.
Suzu: (Paling) There is going to be no mating scene, you pervert! Go find someone of your own kind and go on a date.
Elder God: Do you know how hard it is to find someone exactly like me?
Lorant: (From the balcony) 120,000,004 to 3?
Elder God: Exactly.
Suzu: (Very near to throwing up) I need to find a new seat!
(The audience begins to cheer as the curtain rises, showing the last scene in this Act. At the same time they take out a bunch of cameras to photo Kain or Ariel, for 'blackmail' purposes as they all say. Riiiiiiight. Nupraptor, upon hearing that Juliet will have to go through such a scene, nearly made a scene himself but was held down by Dejoule and Bane. Moebius, having absolutely no interest in this scene, goes off to the snacks stand early. Of course, as Mortanius said, this only heightens suspicion that the Time Streamer is gay but he didn't say it to everyone in the theatre house while Moebius was in the room. The scene opens to the Capulet orchard, where you can see through the big bay window Kain and Ariel embracing)
Anamae: (Backstage) Well, everyone's going to be disappointed but then that doesn't matter to me. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no! (Sees Ariel and Kain beginning to make out) WHAT THE HELL?!!! This is not called for in the play!
Vorador: (Beside her) Improve, of course!
Anamae: Ack! (Faints dead away as she sees Kain do a move on Ariel that should be considered for an NC-17 rating, but because of certain powers, is only an M rating)
(Kain and Ariel move towards the balcony after making out. The audience grins to themselves and take many a photo shots/camcorder pics and then settle back for the rest of the scene, happy that they got what they wanted, the perverts)
Random Vampire: Oh, shut up!
Random Sarafan: Yeah, everyone needs to chill out once in a while.
Ariel: (Looking at Kain) Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree:
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.
Kain: It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east:
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
Ariel: Yon light is not day-light, I know it, I:
It is some meteor that the sun exhales,
To be to thee this night a torch-bearer,
And light thee on thy way to Mantua:
Therefore stay yet; thou need'st not to be gone.
Kain: (Sighs dramatically) Let me be ta'en, let me be put to death;
I am content, so thou wilt have it so.
I'll say yon grey is not the morning's eye,
'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow;
Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat
The vaulty heaven so high above our heads:
I have more care to stay than will to go:
Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it so.
How is't, my soul? let's talk; it is not day.
Ariel: It is, it is: hie hence, be gone, away!
It is the lark that sings so out of tune,
Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.
Some say the lark makes sweet division;
This doth not so, for she divideth us:
Some say the lark and loathed toad change eyes,
O, now I would they had changed voices too!
Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
Hunting thee hence with hunt's-up to the day,
O, now be gone; more light and light it grows.
Kain: More light and light; more dark and dark our woes!
(Zephon enters into the chamber; Kain turns to hide behind a curtain. The girls in the audience titter amongst themselves, expecting the worse to happen)
Zephon: Madam?
Ariel: Nurse?
Zephon: Your lady mother is coming to your chamber:
The day is broke; be wary, look about.
(Zephon turns to leave and Kain comes out from his hiding place. He and Ariel embrace once again and about three, no four, fan girls faint away from the sweetness of the moment)
Ariel: Then, window, let day in, and let life out.
Kain: (Climbs the edge of the balcony) Farewell, farewell! one kiss, and I'll descend. (Kisses Ariel and goes down)
Ariel: Art thou gone so? love, lord, ay, husband, friend!
I must hear from thee every day in the hour,
For in a minute there are many days:
O, by this count I shall be much in years
Ere I again behold my Romeo!
Kain: Farewell!
I will omit no opportunity
That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.
Ariel: O think'st thou we shall ever meet again?
Kain: I doubt it not; and all these woes shall serve
For sweet discourses in our time to come.
Ariel: O God, I have an ill-divining soul!
Methinks I see thee, now thou art below,
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb:
Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale.
Kain: And trust me, love, in my eye so do you:
Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu!
(Kain goes offstage with an air of such sadness that even some people begin to cry, even Hash'ak'git who was watching from the doorway. Now Vorador, along with Umah's help, had managed to get Anamae out of her faint, but when Kain walked backstage she fainted once again. Seeing Kain make out once with Ariel was bad enough, but twice was enough to send anyone overboard)
Umah: She'll come to during the intermission.
(Back onstage)
Ariel: O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle:
If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him.
That is renown'd for faith? Be fickle, fortune;
For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long,
But send him back.
Melchiah: (Calling within) Ho, daughter! are you up?
Ariel: (Drifting back into the chamber) Who is't that calls? is it my lady mother?
Is she not down so late, or up so early?
What unaccustom'd cause procures her hither?
Melchiah: (Fanning himself) Why, how now, Juliet!
Ariel: (Pretending to feel faint) Madam, I am not well.
Melchiah: Evermore weeping for your cousin's death?
What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears?
An if thou couldst, thou couldst not make him live;
Therefore, have done: some grief shows much of love;
But much of grief shows still some want of wit.
Ariel: Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.
Melchiah: (Coughing slightly; the shrill voice was beginning to hurt after all) So shall you feel the loss, but not the friend
Which you weep for.
Ariel: Feeling so the loss,
Cannot choose but ever weep the friend.
Melchiah: Well, girl, thou weep'st not so much for his death,
As that the villain lives which slaughter'd him.
Ariel: What villain madam?
Melchiah: That same villain, Romeo.
(In the audience)
Faustus: This is getting deep.
Sebastian: Indeed. Somehow I feel Melchiah aka Lady Capulet will lose it somewhere down the line. His voice - excuse me, her voice is a bit too shrill.
Faustus: Might have to feed soon.
Sebastian: One of the choir people, you think?
Faustus: (Winking) I know.
(Onstage)
Ariel: Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands:
Would none but I might venge my cousin's death!
Melchiah: We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not:
Then weep no more. I'll send to one in Mantua,
Where that same banish'd runagate doth live,
Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram,
That he shall soon keep Tybalt company:
And then, I hope, thou wilt be satisfied.
Ariel: Indeed, I never shall be satisfied
With Romeo, till I behold him--dead--
Is my poor heart for a kinsman vex'd.
Madam, if you could find out but a man
To bear a poison, I would temper it;
That Romeo should, upon receipt thereof,
Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors
To hear him named, and cannot come to him.
To wreak the love I bore my cousin
Upon his body that slaughter'd him!
Melchiah: Find thou the means, and I'll find such a man.
But now I'll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.
Ariel: (Tries to smile) And joy comes well in such a needy time:
What are they, I beseech your ladyship?
Melchiah: Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child;
One who, to put thee from thy heaviness,
Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy,
That thou expect'st not nor I look'd not for. Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn,
The gallant, young and noble gentleman,
The County Paris, at Saint Peter's Church,
Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.
(The audience begins to gasp and then boo Melchiah, hissing that anybody making someone marry someone they didn't like was not fair indeed. Some people even went as far to throw stuff at the Clan Lord, but he skilfully sidestepped the popcorn and continued)
Ariel: (Anger apparent in her voice) Now, by Saint Peter's Church and Peter too,
He shall not make me there a joyful bride.
I wonder at this haste; that I must wed
Ere he, that should be husband, comes to woo.
I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam,
I will not marry yet; and, when I do, I swear,
It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,
Rather than Paris. These are news indeed!
Melchiah: Here comes your father; tell him so yourself,
And see how he will take it at your hands.
(Janos and Zephon enter again; the Ancient is still sporting a big bruise)
Janos: When the sun sets, the air doth drizzle dew;
But for the sunset of my brother's son
It rains downright.
How now! a conduit, girl? what, still in tears?
Evermore showering? In one little body
Thou counterfeit'st a bark, a sea, a wind;
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is,
Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, thy sighs;
Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them,
Without a sudden calm, will overset
Thy tempest-tossed body. How now, wife!
Have you deliver'd to her our decree?
Melchiah: Ay, sir; but she will none, she gives you thanks.
I would the fool were married to her grave!
Janos: Soft! take me with you, take me with you, wife.
How! will she none? doth she not give us thanks?
Is she not proud? doth she not count her blest,
Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom?
Ariel: Not proud, you have; but thankful, that you have:
Proud can I never be of what I hate;
But thankful even for hate, that is meant love.
Janos: How now, how now, chop-logic! What is this?
'Proud,' and 'I thank you,' and 'I thank you not;'
And yet 'not proud,' mistress minion, you,
Thank me no thankings, nor, proud me no prouds,
But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next,
To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage!
You tallow-face!
(Pretends to slap Ariel across the face; the Seraphim gasp in shock. They don't know that this is part of the play and begin to lash back at Janos)
Zofia: Father, how could you? Juliet doesn't want to marry if she does not love Paris! How could you strike her?
Lorant: Her heart is broken! For once feel a little remorse. I thought you were so cool but now I'm beginning to think differently of you, Janos!
Cili: Janos, you've had so much pain in your life so how can you not feel for poor Juliet!
Janos: It's only a part in the play! This isn't real!
Zofia: I don't want to hear this now! (Sits down fuming with Lorant and Cili casting him the Evil Eye glances)
Melchiah: (Nervously) Okay people, back to the play. Only a little more to do! (Clears his throat) Fie, fie! what, are you mad?
Ariel: (Pretending to cry) Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
Hear me with patience but to speak a word.
Janos: (Shouting at Ariel) Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch!
I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday,
Or never after look me in the face:
Speak not, reply not, do not answer me;
My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest
That God had lent us but this only child;
But now I see this one is one too much,
And that we have a curse in having her:
Out on her, hilding!
Zephon: God in heaven bless her!
You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.
Janos: (Makes to strike Zephon) And why, my lady wisdom? hold your tongue,
Good prudence; smatter with your gossips, go.
Zephon: I speak no treason.
Janos: O, God ye god-den.
Zephon: May not one speak?
Janos: Peace, you mumbling fool!
Utter your gravity o'er a gossip's bowl;
For here we need it not.
Melchiah: (Restraining Janos's hand) You are too hot.
Janos: God's bread! it makes me mad:
Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play,
Alone, in company, still my care hath been
To have her match'd: and having now provided
A gentleman of noble parentage,
Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train'd,
Stuff'd, as they say, with honourable parts,
Proportion'd as one's thought would wish a man;
And then to have a wretched puling fool,
A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender,
To answer 'I'll not wed; I cannot love,
I am too young; I pray you, pardon me.'
But, as you will not wed, I'll pardon you:
Graze where you will you shall not house with me:
Look to't, think on't, I do not use to jest.
Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advise:
An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend;
And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in
the streets,
For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee,
Nor what is mine shall never do thee good:
Trust to't, bethink you; I'll not be forsworn.
(Janos casts one more look at the sobbing form of Ariel and stalks out of the room and exits the stage. People boo and hiss after him and even the other cast members look at Janos like they've seen someone quite different. It is a side they've never seen to him, after all)
Ariel: Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,
That sees into the bottom of my grief?
O, sweet my mother, cast me not away!
Delay this marriage for a month, a week;
Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed
In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.
Melchiah: (Sneering) Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word:
Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.
(Exits the stage as well with a twist of his head)
Ariel: O God!--O nurse, how shall this be prevented?
My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven;
How shall that faith return again to earth,
Unless that husband send it me from heaven
By leaving earth? comfort me, counsel me.
Alack, alack, that heaven should practise stratagems
Upon so soft a subject as myself!
What say'st thou? hast thou not a word of joy?
Some comfort, nurse.
Zephon: (Hugging Ariel as best as he can despite the dress, makeup and the fact that's she's a ghost) Faith, here it is.
Romeo is banish'd; and all the world to nothing,
That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you;
Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
I think it best you married with the county.
O, he's a lovely gentleman!
Romeo's a dishclout to him: an eagle, madam,
Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye
As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,
I think you are happy in this second match,
For it excels your first: or if it did not,
Your first is dead; or 'twere as good he were,
As living here and you no use of him.
Ariel: Speakest thou from thy heart?
Zephon: And from my soul too;
Or else beshrew them both.
Ariel: Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much.
Go in: and tell my lady I am gone,
Having displeased my father, to Laurence' cell,
To make confession and to be absolved.
Zephon: Marry, I will; and this is wisely done.
(Leaves the stage as well, now Ariel is alone. The audience looks to her and a even a few people have made posters quickly that say 'We Support You Juliet' and others with the words 'Down With Janos' written on them. And this is not of the Sarafan's doing either)
Ariel: Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!
Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,
Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue
Which she hath praised him with above compare
So many thousand times? Go, counsellor;
Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.
I'll to the friar, to know his remedy:
If all else fail, myself have power to die.
(The curtain falls; the 3rd Act is over. Anamae quickly brushes onstage, shielding away from Ariel as best as she can. The horror, oh the horror of it all. The audience is almost in a state of frenzy, wanting to hang Janos)
Anamae: People please be quiet! Get rid of those posters, we're not having a movement going on here!
Random Seraphim: What Janos did was low! Low!
Random Sarafan: Yeah, no girl should be treated like that!
Elder God: Burn him!
Anamae: It's a play people, and he's playing the role as best as possible! You're supposed to hate Lord Capulet, not Janos! Okay? (Mutterings) Now we'll have the intermission for about thirty minutes and everyone can go and stretch, and cool down your tempers. And if I see anyone, ANYONE trying to come back stage to harm Janos, you will not be seeing any more plays done by the Nosgoth Theatre house.
(Everyone files out, sharing their comments and insights about the scene)
Suzu: Anamae.
Anamae: Yeah?
Suzu: Zofia, Lorant and Cili are scaring me. What should I do?
Anamae: Improve. Everyone seems to be doing it now.
Suzu: All right. (Turns to leave, then comes back) For what it's worth, I think Janos is a good actor.
Anamae: Yeah, but he better calm down just a bit because people here take it a bit too far. Go and check on the fire I set during last intermission; put it out if it's still burning.
Suzu: Alright!