The Libertine
George Ah, the Cambridge boy knows his books by heart. Lead on, King’s.
John Alcock.
Alcock My lord.
John Something rotten has got into my guts.
Alcock I trust it is not me, my lord.
John No, Alcock, it is not. Not yet.
Elizabeth We should mark the front lawn at Adderbury for pall-mall. I had always thought it a foolish game.
John Depends on who you play with.
Elizabeth The King plays with a common prostitute, not his wife.
John The Portuguese have little flair for outdoor pursuits. Except navigating, of course.
Elizabeth I mean that the etiquette of it is singular.
John I know what you mean.
Elizabeth You must always be ace, king and jack, my dear. But heaven has not disposed your cards so.
George Johnny! It’s your shot!
John I’m not playing!
King Oh, but you are, John. You are if I say you are. The most advanced scientific instrument in western Europe. It cost £60,000. It tells the time in every corner of the globe. Understand? That is achievement. The man who did that was not continually pissed for the last three years.
John What do you want from me?
King Writing something profound that will stand as a monument to my reign. You’re my literary giant. Dryden? Plodder. But look what he’s achieved. Elizabeth had her Shakespeare. You can be mine. Give me a major work of literature and I’ll give you five hundred guineas.
John When would you like it? Friday?
King Don’t fuck it up, John. I love you.
Molly Mrs Barry! I cannot let you have long. I must prepare Tamburlaine. There’s a great deal of setting up.
John Mrs Barry.
Molly . . . And a great deal of taking down.
Lizzie My Lord Rochester.
John I’m come as I said I would.
Lizzie Would you have me lift my skirt? Or do you have a mind to raise it by your own endeavours?
John I’m come to train you. . . in your acting.
Lizzie So you said when we first met, but your reputation being what it is, I thought you meant something different.
John I have, I hope, many reputations. I am come, I say, to train you in your stage acting.
Lizzie Never in my life have I heard you spoken of as an actor.
John That does not deter me from spreading my insights to others.
Lizzie I thought it would not.
John Then we shall begin. You are familiar with the plays of Mr Etherege?
Lizzie There are but two, my lord.
John Not for long, I fear. The Comical Revenge or Love In A Tub. Have you seen Mrs Betterton playing Garciana?
Lizzie Yes, I’m her understudy.
John Indeed. Act Two, Scene Two. I shall play Beaufort. Graciana, why do you condemn your love? Your beauty without that, alas, would prove but my destruction. An unlucky star prognosticating ruin and despair.
Lizzie You mistake. ‘Tis not my love I blame, but my discretion. Here the active flame should yet a longer time have been concealed. Too soon, too soon I fear it was revealed. Our weaker sex glories in surprise. We boast the sudden conquests of our eyes. But men esteem a foe that dares contend. One that with noble courage does defend a wounded heart. The victories they gain, they prize by their own hazard and their pain.
John That was not Elizabeth Barry. That was Mrs Betterton.
Lizzie An understudy must imitate, not create.
John Yesterday you created.
Lizzie Yesterday I was dismissed.
John But you played truthfully.
Lizzie It costs too much to play the truth.
John I do not think you have considered this speech at all.
Lizzie Well, how would you have me do it?
John Let us consider now. What does it mean, that speech that Mrs Betterton mangled so?
Lizzie Graciana means that she has given away the secrets of her heart too freely. Something that a gentlewoman must not do to a gentleman.
John Why not?
Lizzie Because men will take love for granted and then not prize it.
John And is our author right? Do you believe that?
Lizzie I believe men are hurdles that must be negotiated.
John Is that all? Do you never feel passion for us?
Lizzie I’ve counterfeited passion in gentlemen’s beds if that is your meaning.
John Counterfeit will not serve you on the stage.
Lizzie Yesterday I was jeered and taunted by four hundred ruffians. I know that will not serve me.
John And so you will take their word against both of ours and traffic in falsehood from now on?
Lizzie I don’t know.
John Then let us gain knowledge. To the speech again. You played it sweetly. Graciana is not innocent or she would not have such insight. If you had ever loved a man, you would say that speech with regret. Because you would fear the loss of him.
Lizzie And supposing I have loved?
John Then show me in the speech.
Lizzie Sir, you mistake. ‘Tis not my love I blame, but my discretion. Here the active flame should yet a longer time have been concealed. Too soon, too soon I fear it was revealed. Our weaker sex glories in surprise. We boast the sudden conquests of our eyes. But men esteem a foe that dares contend. One that with noble courage does defend a wounded heart. The victories they gain, they prize by their own hazard and their pain. Well? Was there improvement?
John Did you think so?
Lizzie I wish to know your thoughts.
John It was better. But now you’re too angry.
Lizzie Of course I’m fucking angry! You walk into this theatre in tour thirty shilling boots telling me how I should set about my work! I warn you, I have a temper. And I have been known to strike out with the first object at hand. Well, and if that be a property blade, some have sharper edges than is needful, so have a care.
John Ahhh. To die onstage at the hands of a beautiful woman.
Lizzie I am no such!
John I think I can make you an actress of truth, not a creature of artifice. I can do this. But I cannot train you unless you give a little towards me.
Lizzie It’s not in my nature to give. I have my talent and I’m jealous of it. And though I give you credit that you and you alone in all the town have seen it, I am not so dazzled by the lord and master in you that I cannot resent you. Yes. You are right. I am intent on doing something that no other has yet done. And I lost my purpose yesterday with fear of the pit. But I will conquer them. And it shall not be said when I have my fame and my two pounds a week that Lord Rochester took to me and touched me with the shining wing of his genius and so turned me into a little corner of his greatness. No! I shall be valued for me. And for what I knew I could do upon this stage! And for what I, Lizzie Barry. . . how I. . . I took the heat of my own soul and moulded it and turned it into a wondrous thing and so triumphed.
John If I can help you to that triumph, I am not so devoted to the trumpeting of my own works that I would wish to take credit.
Lizzie So you say now. But in the ale house, when the play is done, and the talk is of my Cleopatra, will you not glide towards your cronies with a ‘I taught her that piece of business’ or ‘She could not be heard in the gallery until I instructed her in a trick or two’?
John Madam, I offer my services. If you see no advantage in them, they can as easy be withdrawn.
Lizzie You could buy my slit for a pound a night, sir. I would not mind that. But I think you would not have it so. What I think you want is power over me, which I do bridle at. For it is only I who can do what you say I can do. If you wish to play a part in this, I would strongly know why.
John Ask yourself what you want from the theatre.
Lizzie I want the passionate love of my audience. I want when I make a sweep of my arm to carry their hearts away. And for when I die, for them to sigh for never seeing me again. ‘Till the next afternoon.
John There is your answer. I want to be one of that multitude. I wish to be moved. I cannot feel in life. I must have others do it for me here in the theatre.
Lizzie You are spoken of as a man with a stomach for life.
John I am the cynic of our golden age. This bounteous dish, which our great Charles and our great God have, more or less in equal measure, placed before us, sets my teeth permanently on edge. Life has no purpose. It is everywhere undone by arbitrariness. I do this and it matters not a jot if I do the opposite. But in a playhouse, every action, good or bad, has it’s consequences. Drop a handkerchief and it will return to smother you. The theatre is my drug. And my illness is so far advanced that my physic must be of the highest quality.
Lizzie Oh, my lord, on these conditions, I endeavour to do what you want.
John What I want is that we meet again tomorrow to consider Ophelia.
Lizzie Ophelia?
John Mr Betterton will revive hamlet next month and you will play Ophelia.
Lizzie Ophelia then if you wish. But let us not neglect the lesson in Mr Etherege’s speech.
John And what is that?
Lizzie That women should ever view men with suspicion.
John I shall be happy to return and address our work with that instruction written on the inside of my skull. Do me now.
Jane How?
John Mouth. Trembling, confused, despairing, limber, dry, A wishing, weak, unmoving lump I lie. This. . . dart of love, whose piercing point, oft tried, With virgin blood ten thousand maids have dyed, Now languid lies in this unhappy hour. Shrunk up. . . and sapless, like a withered flower.
Jane I have a feeling this is going nowhere.
