The Masque of the Red Death

Francesca:
Is there anything to fear in that room?

Prospero:
For the uninvited, there is much to fear.

Prospero:
There is no other God! Satan killed him!

Prospero:
The Red Death is laying waste to the countryside!

Scarlatti:
The Red Death? I beg you, Prospero, sanctuary!

Prospero:
This is no church!

Prospero:
That cross you wear around your neck; is it only a decoration, or are you a true Christian believer?

Francesca:
Yes, I believe - truly.

Prospero:
Then I want you to remove it at once! And never to wear it within this castle again!

Francesca:
You had me take off my cross because it offended...

Prospero:
It offended no one. My Master and his followers look about with open eyes. No, it simply appeared to me to be discourteous... to wear the symbol of a deity long dead.

Prospero:
Somewhere in the human mind, my dear Francesca, lies the key to our existance. My ancestors tried to find it. And to open the door that separates us from our Creator.

Francesca:
But you need no doors to find God. If you believe...

Prospero:
Believe? If you believe you are gullible. Can you look around this world and believe in the goodness of a god who rules it? Famine, Pestilence, War, Disease and Death! They rule this world.

Francesca:
There is also love and life and hope.

Prospero:
Very little hope I assure you. No. If a god of love and life ever did exist... he is long since dead. Someone... something, rules in his place.

Prospero:
But Satan rules the universe! I made a pact with him!

Man in red:
He does not rule alone... and your pact with him will not save you.

Prospero:
There is no other God! Satan killed him!

Man in red:
Each man creates his own God for himself, his own Heaven, his own Hell.

Prospero:
Let me see your face!

[He unmasks the Man in Red to reveal his own bloodstained face]

Man in red:
Your Hell, Prince Prospero... and the moment of your death.

Man in red:
Why should you be afraid to die? Your soul has been dead for a long long time.

Alfredo:
You promised me entertainment, I never expected this. Have such eyes seen sin?

Prospero:
They will.

Alfredo:
Wherever did you find her?

Prospero:
Pretty toy isn't she?

Alfredo:
I wonder...

Prospero:
I'm sure you do, Alfredo. I'm sure you wonder about every woman in my household... everyone with the appearance of innocence, that is.

[Prospero has caught her trying to escape]

Francesca:
Juliana betrayed us.

Prospero:
She betrayed ME.

[Juliana has been killed]

Prospero:
I beg you do not mourn for Juliana. We should celebrate. She's just married a friend of mine.

Scarlatti:
Sir, at least spare my wife. I give her to you to do what you please.

Prospero:
I've already had that doubtful pleasure.

Prospero:
How like a worm you are. Be one.

Prospero:
I'm not corrupting, Alfredo, no... instructing.

Prospero:
The way is not easy, I know, but I will take you by the hand and lead you through the cruel light into the velvet darkness.

Francesca:
Forgive them!

Prospero:
Forgive them? If my hound bites my hand after I have fed and caressed him, should I allow him to go undisciplined?

Juliana:
Prince Prospero , why do you roam the late night corridors?

Prospero:
Sleep eludes me.

Juliana:
You have disturbing thoughts?

Prospero:
And you Juliana what keeps you awake?

Juliana:
I think my thoughts dwell on the same subject as yours , the peasant girl.

Prospero:
She has a perfect faith.

Juliana:
So do I , in you and in what you believe , I've been an eager student but I've held back from the final cerimonies , and now I'm ready to join you at the invocation.

Prospero:
[laughing] How truly realistic women are , finally you are ready to dare the most terrible rites and incantations to secure your position here.I wonder if she is ready to dare as much if anything for the sake of love.

Francesca:
[after Gino has been ordered to be removed from the castle] Prince Prospero let me go with him.

Prospero:
You?

Francesca:
Please.

Prospero:
You , oh no my dear I couldn't bear to think of... No [to the crowd] you will go to your rooms now and prepare for the masque, you will not appear in your costumes until... midnight.

Prospero:
[turns to see Francesca following him] Why do you follow me?

Francesca:
Bring Gino back and I will do whatever you wish.

Prospero:
You would destroy yourself for him?

Francesca:
Yes.

Prospero:
[smiling] You almost cause me to doubt.

Juliana:
Prospero, my prince I'm ready [removes the rose to reveal the mark she gave herself] .

Juliana:
Gino , my father where are they?

Prospero:
[laughing as Francesca hides herself] Modesty but no humility, why do you hide yourself?

Francesca:
It's not right that you should look at me.

Prospero:
That cross you wear around your neck is it only a decoration or are you a true christian believer?

Francesca:
Yes I believe truly.

Prospero:
Then I want you to remove it at once and never to wear it within this castle again. [holds out his hand while Francesca takes off her necklace] .

Juliana:
This peasant girl is she always to be bathed in my bedroom?

Prospero:
We'll find you another room Juliana, meanwhile you will dress the Lady Francesca in one of your finest gowns.

Juliana:
I don't...

Prospero:
Later you can instruct her in the ways of the court.

Francesca:
Please my father.

Prospero:
Your father... oh yes your father and your lover are being quartered in a warm and safe place, now I must go and join my guests.

Juliana:
[turning to Francesca] You may think that you have impressed the Prince Prospero, but you can count on little help from me.

Francesca:
You will do as he told you.

Juliana:
Yes as we all must do.

Francesca:
I will do what I must to save my men, but if they are killed I will die and so will Prince Prospero.

Man in red:
I have no title. Why do you call me "Excellency"?

Prospero:
Well, I thought that as the ambassador of Satan...

Man in red:
He is not my master. Death has no master.

Prospero:
Do you know how a falcon is trained, my dear? Her eyes are sewn shut. Blinded temporarily, she suffers the whims of her God patiently, until her will is submerged and she learns to serve - as your God taught and blinded you with crosses.

Alfredo:
[tied up and hanging from a chandelier in the costume of an ape] I will set you to tortures unimagined!

Hop Toad:
You have already tortured... by your cruelty to my Esmeralda!

Man in red:
[Prospero has chased him to the Black Room] Prospero... you command me to wait. Very well... I wait.

Man in red:
It's time for a new dance to begin... the Dance of Death!

Prospero:
Your Excellency... this girl [he indicates Francesca]... in all my life, I've never met one who's faith rivalled mine. Spare her to me.

Man in red:
A charitible request... a rare thing with you, Prospero.

Gino:
[thinking the Man in Red is a monk] My God... my God!

Man in red:
Who is... *your* God?

Gino:
The true one.

Man in red:
[softly] Yes...

Gino:
I have sinned. I have killed.

Man in red:
For yourself?

Gino:
No! [the Man in Red makes a gesture to continue] Now I'm afraid.

Man in red:
For yourself?

Gino:
For Francesca... and for me. I must go back for her, but I don't know how! What weapon can I use against Prospero?

Man in red:
[pause, then] Love?

Gino:
I'm afraid! I'm afraid!

Man in red:
I give you a sign. [He hands Gino a playing or tarot card]

Gino:
[stares at the card, then] What does it mean?

Man in red:
Mankind.

Prospero:
I should like to see your face.

Man in red:
There is no face of death... until the moment of your own death.

Prospero:
Who do you come for?

Man in red:
Many.

Prospero:
All?

Man in red:
Not all.

Man in red:
[Last lines] I called many. Peasant and prince... the worthy and the dishonored. Six only are left... a young man and woman... a dwarf and a tiny dancer... this child [he rests his hand on the little girl's head] and an old man still in the village. Sic transit gloria mundi. [He joins the file of Deaths]

Prospero:
These, all of my friends... I promised them safety.

Man in red:
You presumed too much.

Prospero:
I know, I know, but it does make a fine jest... the kind of jest that would amuse Satan.

Man in red:
[coldly] Would it?

Man in Yellow:
This eternity of wandering! Ten thousand sleep where I walked. I am very tired.

Man in White:
The weariness of those to whom we bring rest burdens you.

Man in red:
[to Gino] You have recovered your courage. Now prove your wisdom.

Prospero:
[to Francesca, who is emotionlessly watching Alfredo burn to death] I see you no longer turn away from the cruelties of life.

Francesca:
I no longer care. My life is done. [she lookls at Prospero] What's left I give to you tonight.

Man in red:
Is my costume such a disguise that you don't recogbnize me?

Prospero:
Your voice, it's familiar. Dottore Bernelli, that's who you are! Bernelli, you dog, thinking... [pause, then realizing] You're not Bernelli.

Man in red:
No. The doctor dances in the White Room... but I passesd close by him.

Francesca:
Juliana, thank God, I thought... don't know. [sees the burn mark on Juliana's breast] What's that?

Juliana:
Satan's mark.

Francesca:
Prospero did THAT to you?

Juliana:
No, I did it to myself. Marks me as one of Satan's handmaidens.

Prospero:
These two men are true believers in a God who preached 'Love thy neighbor', therefore they refuse to fight each other in order to save one of their lives.

Gino:
Don't grovel to him. Don't let him delight in the destruction of your souls.

Lead Villager:
I wish to save our bodies. The few left of us.

Gino:
Do you expect any plea to move his heart? If we must die, let's die like human beings.

Lead Villager:
You have not seen the Red Death.

Gino:
And you've not seen the dungeons of Prospero.

Prospero:
What do you want?

Lead Villager:
Mercy, great prince. This is all that is left of us. And the winter it comes and the freezing wind, there is no shelter.

Prospero:
Then dig a burrow as the fox and rabbits do.

Lead Villager:
But the wells and the streams, they'll be frozen over, there's no food.

Prospero:
Then store up nuts like the squirrels.

Lead Villager:
Mercy, give us sanctuary of the castle walls.

Prospero:
Give me an end to your pleading. Go back from whence you came.

Lead Villager:
We will die!

Prospero:
If you refuse to go, then die here. Archers!

Alfredo:
[to a party-goer] Let me speak to you about the, uh, "anatomy of terror."

Prospero:
[Interrupting] Terror? What would you know of terror, Alfredo? Your senses are much too blunt! What is "terror?" Come. [Leads the party into an adjoining chamber with a clock] Silence! [the clock ticks] Listen. Is it to awaken and hear the passing of time? Or is it the failing beat of your own heart? Or the footsteps of someone who, just a moment before, was in your room? But let us not dwell on terror. The knowledge of terror is vouchsafed only to the precious few.

Juliana:
My master... Satan! [Prospero laughs from another room] Prospero? Prospero? [Gets up] I am betrothed... of the devil. And I have seen the terrors.

Prospero:
Not all of them.

Juliana:
[Enters the white room] I have survived my own sacrifice.

Prospero:
There is more.

Juliana:
[Enters the purple room] And I'm stronger in the devil's favor than you are! [Enters the yellow room] Together on earth... we shall live as man and wife... and when he calls us, you shall be saved... and I, still, your wife! [Enters the main ballroom and walks toward the clock] I have tasted the beauties of terror.

Prospero:
Hush. Listen. The passing of time... the beating of a heart... the footsteps of an assassin... destiny! [Juliana is killed by Prospero's hawk]

Prospero:
Who do you come for?

Red Death:
Many.

Prospero:
All?

Red Death:
Not all.

Prospero:
Hear me! [all fall silent] Soon you will be costuming yourselves for the masque. A celebration, my friends. A celebration of victory over death, of evil over good. Monsignor Scarlatti will not be joining us...he failed to obey my orders. But because of me, through my mediation with my master, the Lord of Flies, you, all of you, unworthy though you may be, will be safe from the Red Death. We promise you...unless of course you incur our displeasure. For some of you are guilty of acts against us. Acts of faith perhaps. And all of you I suspect still harbor some sacred thoughts. But no more. A fallen angel will protect you.