I WANT TO BE YOUR CANARY by Seth Koproski
ACT I
Scene 3
The homecoming feast with guests and nobles. Enter Leo, Queen Ruby, and Cornelia.
Leo: Hear ye, hear ye! Welcome one, welcome all! I trust that the queen has done well in my absence to keep all in order? Very well, then a simple toast to my wonderful, and wonderfully beautiful, better half!
Guests: To King Leo's better half!
Noble 1: And a much better half indeed!
Noble 2: Haha... quiet thyself lest others may hear!
Ruby: Ah, Cornelia, I see that you have selected that Verinaian dress for tonight's feastings. You seem to be quite enamored with it, lately.
Cornelia: Enamored would not be my word of preference, but I suppose one might see it as such.
Ruby: Are you aware of your father's purpose in traveling to Milean so swiftly after his own homecoming?
Cornelia: I merely have supposed that he travels to be diplomatic.
Ruby: Diplomatic, indeed!
Cornelia: Then, pray tell, will you sate my curiosity?
Ruby: But of course, my daughter. He intends to marry you to Prince Schneider of Milean... to your father it would be quite alike a synthesis of the two kingdoms. Peace would reign over all!
Cornelia: I see. If father doth think so, then I shall, for the good of the nation.
Ruby: What would the man, the donor of thy dress say? Would he consent as placidly as you have?
Cornelia: What are you speaking of, mother? I received this dress from a tailor in Verinai.
Ruby: A tailor made it, but I know of no Verinaian tailor with enough fortitude to attempt to infiltrate the royal castle, especially one named Marcus.
Cornelia: How do you know about Marcus?
Ruby: The very walls of this castle have ear, my sweet, innocent daughter. I should inform you that it will not bode well for neither thyself nor Marcus to proceed with this rendezvous tomorrow.
Cornelia: Oh but mother! I cannot just leave him there, alone to wonder where his love may be!
Ruby: Yet you must. There is no other option that will benefit Marcus' well- being.
Cornelia. Perchance... perchance I may appear to be angry at him and, and I shall tell him we were never level nor equals in love! I should tell him that I never would like to see him again... this all will be to fool father's agents! It will be perfect!
Ruby: I advise strongly against it... the absence of an answer is far better than a downright refusal of requiting love.
Cornelia: I will then return quite quickly after my father's spies hath left and make clear my true intentions! It will work out for the best, I am sure.
Ruby: For the sake of stability, I hope so.
Cornelia: If I was ever troubled by instability, then I shouldn't have become enamored with a peasant.
Leo: I do believe that it would be wise to stay wakened no later. Come, my queen, our royal bed doth await.
Exit Leo and Ruby.
Cornelia: It will work out for the best... true love cannot deny its most righteous personifiers!
Exit Cornelia.
Scene 4
A marketplace, filled with vendors, purchasers, and others, including the spies. Enter Marcus.
Marcus: I appear to be somewhat tardy, yet she is still not yet here! Oh, Cornelia, where art thou?
Enter Cornelia.
Marcus: Oh my love!
Cornelia: Oh Marcus!
Marcus: How I have missed thee so!
Cornelia: As I have thee... not.
Marcus: Not? What do you say?
Cornelia: I say... goodbye.
Marcus: Goodbye? What... we have only just met here!
Cornelia: I mean to say, goodbye forever, my dear Marcus.
Marcus: No! Tell me it isn't true! Tell me that this is merely some mockery and I shall forgive thee and we shall never speak of it again!
Cornelia: No, for it must end on this day. I no longer wish to see thee, Marcus. I implore thee to try not enter the castle again... for 'tis my duty to summon the guards at once.
Marcus: What demon is upon you! What hateful words you speak! What acedia that bites with so cruel of steel that will never be found upon mortal blades! Why do you treat me as so?
Cornelia: You are peasantry and I shall be a queen one day, 'tis no doubt.
Marcus: I shall be forlorn for all of eternity.
Cornelia: Fare thee well, my dear Marcus... fare thee well.
Marcus: Solitarily and in darkness shall I die, for no Cornelia will I ever have.
Exit Cornelia.
Marcus: Oh what hellish tortures! Oh what vilest of schemes! How could she commit such a scandal upon I, her former lover? Did she ever love me? These questions... they are gnats, black clouds of hate and torment.
Spy 1: Marcus, this is what they call you?
Marcus: Yes, Marcus was what they used to call me... but now they shall merely call me Forlorn or Devastated... for I have felt as a tree, cut from its trunk and thrown into the infernal flames!
Spy 2: Then you are the harassment of Cornelia?
Marcus: Is that how she further refers to I?
Spy 1: Ah, good! We are here as personal heralds for the king.
Marcus: The king? What message should he want to send to a lowly peasant?
Spy 2: A message of warning! *Strikes Marcus*
Spy 1: And of pain! *Strikes Marcus, continuing with Spy 2*
Spy 2: Hopefully, thy message hath been received?
Marcus: A thousand times over.
Spy 1: Very well. Fare thee well.
Exit Spies.
Marcus: Oh, I might imagine the brimstone of the devil's palace a more agreeable place to inhabit than this, this wretched kingdom!
Exit Marcus. Enter Cornelia.
Cornelia: Marcus? Marcus! Have thee left the market already? Oh how dreadful! Mother was right... how awry these plans have gone!
Exit Cornelia.
Scene 5
Enter Queen Tana with Leo.
Tana: I beg your forgiveness upon the behalf of my husband, his absence is quite necessary and he has instructed me in all things that must be accomplished this day.
Leo: Do not burden yourself with such faults. It is not the means but rather the results that I am fixed upon, dear queen Tana.
Enter Prince Schneider.
Leo: Ah! There is the fellow I have sought, now!
Schneider: The gracious father of she who is most brilliant! How I have longed that you might come to Milean so that I may perchance entreat thee!
Leo: And I thinking that I might have to entreat thee!
Schneider: My lord, I ask of you thy blessed offspring, the princess Cornelia's hand of marriage. For she is the lightest of lights, the brightest of brights, the shining... star... in the...
Tana: King Leo, I do believe that that was the ringing of the castle door! I suppose that it can only be the King Rade himself!
Leo: Oh, quite! Let us go and see, for I do believe that my mind is already fixed! Prince Schneider shall be my daughter's husband!
Schneider: I thank thee a thousand times, oh king!
Exit Tana and Leo.
Schneider: The lightest of lights, the brightest of brights, the shining star... of the frigid northern sky? What rot is this? I must talk to father about this atrocity of a love poem! Bah! Behead the royal scholar!
Exit Schneider.
ACT I
Scene 3
The homecoming feast with guests and nobles. Enter Leo, Queen Ruby, and Cornelia.
Leo: Hear ye, hear ye! Welcome one, welcome all! I trust that the queen has done well in my absence to keep all in order? Very well, then a simple toast to my wonderful, and wonderfully beautiful, better half!
Guests: To King Leo's better half!
Noble 1: And a much better half indeed!
Noble 2: Haha... quiet thyself lest others may hear!
Ruby: Ah, Cornelia, I see that you have selected that Verinaian dress for tonight's feastings. You seem to be quite enamored with it, lately.
Cornelia: Enamored would not be my word of preference, but I suppose one might see it as such.
Ruby: Are you aware of your father's purpose in traveling to Milean so swiftly after his own homecoming?
Cornelia: I merely have supposed that he travels to be diplomatic.
Ruby: Diplomatic, indeed!
Cornelia: Then, pray tell, will you sate my curiosity?
Ruby: But of course, my daughter. He intends to marry you to Prince Schneider of Milean... to your father it would be quite alike a synthesis of the two kingdoms. Peace would reign over all!
Cornelia: I see. If father doth think so, then I shall, for the good of the nation.
Ruby: What would the man, the donor of thy dress say? Would he consent as placidly as you have?
Cornelia: What are you speaking of, mother? I received this dress from a tailor in Verinai.
Ruby: A tailor made it, but I know of no Verinaian tailor with enough fortitude to attempt to infiltrate the royal castle, especially one named Marcus.
Cornelia: How do you know about Marcus?
Ruby: The very walls of this castle have ear, my sweet, innocent daughter. I should inform you that it will not bode well for neither thyself nor Marcus to proceed with this rendezvous tomorrow.
Cornelia: Oh but mother! I cannot just leave him there, alone to wonder where his love may be!
Ruby: Yet you must. There is no other option that will benefit Marcus' well- being.
Cornelia. Perchance... perchance I may appear to be angry at him and, and I shall tell him we were never level nor equals in love! I should tell him that I never would like to see him again... this all will be to fool father's agents! It will be perfect!
Ruby: I advise strongly against it... the absence of an answer is far better than a downright refusal of requiting love.
Cornelia: I will then return quite quickly after my father's spies hath left and make clear my true intentions! It will work out for the best, I am sure.
Ruby: For the sake of stability, I hope so.
Cornelia: If I was ever troubled by instability, then I shouldn't have become enamored with a peasant.
Leo: I do believe that it would be wise to stay wakened no later. Come, my queen, our royal bed doth await.
Exit Leo and Ruby.
Cornelia: It will work out for the best... true love cannot deny its most righteous personifiers!
Exit Cornelia.
Scene 4
A marketplace, filled with vendors, purchasers, and others, including the spies. Enter Marcus.
Marcus: I appear to be somewhat tardy, yet she is still not yet here! Oh, Cornelia, where art thou?
Enter Cornelia.
Marcus: Oh my love!
Cornelia: Oh Marcus!
Marcus: How I have missed thee so!
Cornelia: As I have thee... not.
Marcus: Not? What do you say?
Cornelia: I say... goodbye.
Marcus: Goodbye? What... we have only just met here!
Cornelia: I mean to say, goodbye forever, my dear Marcus.
Marcus: No! Tell me it isn't true! Tell me that this is merely some mockery and I shall forgive thee and we shall never speak of it again!
Cornelia: No, for it must end on this day. I no longer wish to see thee, Marcus. I implore thee to try not enter the castle again... for 'tis my duty to summon the guards at once.
Marcus: What demon is upon you! What hateful words you speak! What acedia that bites with so cruel of steel that will never be found upon mortal blades! Why do you treat me as so?
Cornelia: You are peasantry and I shall be a queen one day, 'tis no doubt.
Marcus: I shall be forlorn for all of eternity.
Cornelia: Fare thee well, my dear Marcus... fare thee well.
Marcus: Solitarily and in darkness shall I die, for no Cornelia will I ever have.
Exit Cornelia.
Marcus: Oh what hellish tortures! Oh what vilest of schemes! How could she commit such a scandal upon I, her former lover? Did she ever love me? These questions... they are gnats, black clouds of hate and torment.
Spy 1: Marcus, this is what they call you?
Marcus: Yes, Marcus was what they used to call me... but now they shall merely call me Forlorn or Devastated... for I have felt as a tree, cut from its trunk and thrown into the infernal flames!
Spy 2: Then you are the harassment of Cornelia?
Marcus: Is that how she further refers to I?
Spy 1: Ah, good! We are here as personal heralds for the king.
Marcus: The king? What message should he want to send to a lowly peasant?
Spy 2: A message of warning! *Strikes Marcus*
Spy 1: And of pain! *Strikes Marcus, continuing with Spy 2*
Spy 2: Hopefully, thy message hath been received?
Marcus: A thousand times over.
Spy 1: Very well. Fare thee well.
Exit Spies.
Marcus: Oh, I might imagine the brimstone of the devil's palace a more agreeable place to inhabit than this, this wretched kingdom!
Exit Marcus. Enter Cornelia.
Cornelia: Marcus? Marcus! Have thee left the market already? Oh how dreadful! Mother was right... how awry these plans have gone!
Exit Cornelia.
Scene 5
Enter Queen Tana with Leo.
Tana: I beg your forgiveness upon the behalf of my husband, his absence is quite necessary and he has instructed me in all things that must be accomplished this day.
Leo: Do not burden yourself with such faults. It is not the means but rather the results that I am fixed upon, dear queen Tana.
Enter Prince Schneider.
Leo: Ah! There is the fellow I have sought, now!
Schneider: The gracious father of she who is most brilliant! How I have longed that you might come to Milean so that I may perchance entreat thee!
Leo: And I thinking that I might have to entreat thee!
Schneider: My lord, I ask of you thy blessed offspring, the princess Cornelia's hand of marriage. For she is the lightest of lights, the brightest of brights, the shining... star... in the...
Tana: King Leo, I do believe that that was the ringing of the castle door! I suppose that it can only be the King Rade himself!
Leo: Oh, quite! Let us go and see, for I do believe that my mind is already fixed! Prince Schneider shall be my daughter's husband!
Schneider: I thank thee a thousand times, oh king!
Exit Tana and Leo.
Schneider: The lightest of lights, the brightest of brights, the shining star... of the frigid northern sky? What rot is this? I must talk to father about this atrocity of a love poem! Bah! Behead the royal scholar!
Exit Schneider.