by Dava Sobel
COPERNICUS. No. I’m here to report that our work is very nearly finished. Just a few more sections, and then …
BISHOP. Excellent!
COPERNICUS. Yes. Well. There is one more thing that we think might require Your Reverence’s assistance to …
BISHOP. You see? It’s what I told you all along. Now you have proved it to yourself. How getting rid of that hussy has freed your mind for the serious work God intended you to do.
Blackout.
SCENE xv. TOWER ROOM
DISCOVERY
FRANZ and RHETICUS lie together on the cot in an embrace.
FRANZ. (getting up, starting to dress) I have to get back.
RHETICUS. What about your duty here? To me?
FRANZ. He’s finding a million other things for me to do now. Every day it’s something new.
RHETICUS. (getting up, going to him) What about the nights?
They kiss.
RHETICUS. Come back later. Promise?
They kiss again.
COPERNICUS enters, sees them, and reels.
They see him as well. FRANZ jumps, starts to bolt, but RHETICUS holds him.
FRANZ breaks free, runs out.
RHETICUS. You’ve known all along. Haven’t you?
COPERNICUS. I wasn’t sure.
RHETICUS. But you suspected?
COPERNICUS. I prayed that my suspicions were unfounded.
RHETICUS. Now you know the truth.
COPERNICUS. Yes.
RHETICUS. And you despise me.
COPERNICUS. No, Joachim. Neither do I judge you.
RHETICUS. You needn’t pretend to understand.
COPERNICUS. But I can no longer protect you.
RHETICUS. From myself?
COPERNICUS. Do you know what will happen to you, if you are discovered?
RHETICUS. I know.
COPERNICUS. You couldn’t know, or you wouldn’t …
RHETICUS. I know!
COPERNICUS. The law condemns anyone who commits …
RHETICUS. Don’t quote me the law.
COPERNICUS. It says you forfeit your life.
RHETICUS. It doesn’t matter.
COPERNICUS. You will be burned alive!
RHETICUS. Burn alive and die! Die and burn in Hell forever! I am doomed either way.
COPERNICUS. If you’re discovered … If word of this should reach the boy’s father …
RHETICUS. He won’t dare tell his father. He won’t tell anyone.
COPERNICUS. The risk is too great, Joachim.
RHETICUS. He won’t tell.
COPERNICUS. You’ve got to get out of here. Go now, before anything else happens.
RHETICUS. Go?
COPERNICUS. Go! Yes! Now. I insist that you go.
RHETICUS. I can’t abandon you now.
COPERNICUS. I won’t have you risk your life for the sake of …
RHETICUS. I don’t care what happens to me.
COPERNICUS. Then think of the boy. Don’t ruin his chances …
RHETICUS. We’re so close to the end. Another few days is all we …
COPERNICUS. No.
RHETICUS. Just …
COPERNICUS. It’s impossible. Not another word now. Off with you, or I’ll die of fright.
RHETICUS. Let me finish what we …
COPERNICUS. I’m afraid for you, Joachim.
RHETICUS. All right, I’ll go.
COPERNICUS puts his hand to his heart, sits down.
RHETICUS begins gathering the piles of manuscript pages.
COPERNICUS. What are you doing?
RHETICUS. I’ll take it to Nuremberg. Do what I promised.
COPERNICUS. No. You can’t …
RHETICUS. To the printer.
COPERNICUS. No.
RHETICUS. I will keep that promise, no matter what.
RHETICUS continues packing the manuscript.
COPERNICUS tries to stop him, grabs the pages from him.
COPERNICUS. Stop!
RHETICUS. (refusing to let them go) What’s the matter with you?
COPERNICUS. It’s not ready.
RHETICUS. It is.
COPERNICUS. No.
RHETICUS. It’s …
COPERNICUS. I’m not ready.
RHETICUS. I’ll take this much with me now, and later you can send …
COPERNICUS. You cannot take my manuscript!
RHETICUS. Have you completely lost faith in me?
COPERNICUS. No.
RHETICUS. I will guard it with my life.
COPERNICUS. No.
RHETICUS. You know I will.
COPERNICUS. No.
RHETICUS. I swear it.
COPERNICUS. I never meant for you to take it away.
RHETICUS. We’ve been working toward this moment ever since we …
COPERNICUS. I need to keep it here. With me.
RHETICUS. I promised you a published book.
COPERNICUS. Keep it by me.
RHETICUS. I’ve got to take it with me to …
COPERNICUS. Not this. No.
RHETICUS. But how can I … ?
COPERNICUS. A copy. I meant for you to take a copy with you. Not my manuscript.
RHETICUS. I’ve copied only the first few chapters. Not enough to …
COPERNICUS. I can’t let it go.
RHETICUS. There isn’t time now to copy …
COPERNICUS. (breaking down) I can’t.
RHETICUS. You’ve got to let me …
COPERNICUS. I can’t. It’s been with me my whole life. It is my life. I cannot part with it.
COPERNICUS clutches the manuscript to his chest.
RHETICUS. All right. I’ll just take the parts I copied.
COPERNICUS. I can’t.
RHETICUS. It’s all right. But what about the rest? How will you … ?
COPERNICUS. I’ll copy it for you. I’ll …
RHETICUS. You can’t do that by yourself.
COPERNICUS. I’ll get someone to help me. You’ll see.
RHETICUS. I’ll be waiting for it. In Nuremberg.
COPERNICUS. I know you will.
RHETICUS. I won’t fail you.
COPERNICUS. Go now.
RHETICUS. Everyone will be waiting for it.
COPERNICUS. Yes. Now go.
RHETICUS closes the satchel, looks around the room.
COPERNICUS. Joachim!
COPERNICUS embraces RHETICUS in a long good-bye hold.
COPERNICUS. Good-bye, Joachim.
RHETICUS. Good-bye, my teacher.
RHETICUS goes to the door, turns for a last look.
COPERNICUS. May God forgive you, and bless you.
RHETICUS. God be with you, my teacher. My father.
RHETICUS exits.
COPERNICUS. And with you. May God be w-w-w-
COPERNICUS shakes his head to clear it, tries to speak. His right arm falls to his side, but he still clutches the manuscript to his chest with the left as he sinks into a chair.
Blackout.
SCENE xvi. COPERNICUS’S BEDROOM
DE REV
COPERNICUS lies in bed, comatose. Giese kneels beside him, praying. A loud knocking comes from the front door, but Giese tries to ignore it.
ANNA. (offstage) For pity’s sake! Let me in. Oh, why won’t you open the door? Let me in, I say. Have you no heart?
GIESE relents, goes to the door.
ANNA. (offstage) Let me in. Let me in!
GIESE opens the door.
ANNA. (entering) Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t anyone say anything? Oh, where is he?
ANNA rushes past GIESE to the bedside.
GIESE stays close behind her.
ANNA. Oh, Mikoj! It’s me, my dearest. I’m here with you now. It’s all right. They didn’t want me to know, but I found out. And now I’ll stay with you. I’ll be here every minute. Don’t worry. I’m here.
GIESE. He doesn’t hear you.
ANNA. Shh. Look! He’s trying to speak.
GIESE. He hasn
’t said a word in weeks now. Nothing.
ANNA. But his eyes are open. His lips are moving. Look.
GIESE. The duke sent his personal physician. He said that’s just a … a reflex.
ANNA. You don’t know that. He may hear everything we’re saying. (to COPERNICUS) Can you hear me, Mikoj? You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to. If it’s too hard for you, you just rest. I know. It’s all right. I’m not leaving you now.
GIESE. There’s nothing to be done.
ANNA. You should have told me.
GIESE puts a hand on her head, as though to bless her, but she stands up to face him.
ANNA. (whispering) He wouldn’t want this.
GIESE. He is not afraid to die.
ANNA. There are certain powders I know about. They could … end his suffering.
GIESE. God will take him when it’s time.
ANNA. I’m just saying, it would be possible to ease his … Even to hasten his entry into the next life.
GIESE. You mustn’t say such things, my child. You must not even think them.
ANNA kneels by the bed again, takes COPERNICUS’s hand.
GIESE prays.
FRANZ. (running in) Bishop Giese! It’s here, Bishop Giese! It’s here! Look!
GIESE. Hush. What’s … ?
FRANZ. Miss Anna!
GIESE. What have you got there?
FRANZ. It’s from Nuremberg. See? This must be it.
GIESE. Let me look.
ANNA. Something for him?
GIESE. Let’s just see what we have here.
FRANZ. Is it … ?
GIESE. Look at that!
ANNA. What is it?
FRANZ. I knew it!
ANNA. Is that his book?
FRANZ. All those hundreds of pages I copied for him. For both of them.
GIESE. I never thought I’d see the day.
FRANZ. Is there a note? Any word from … ?
ANNA. That can’t be it. Just a pile of paper?
GIESE. “On the Revolutions of the …”
ANNA. That’s really it?
GIESE. “Heavenly Spheres.“ By …
FRANZ. There’s nothing else in the package?
GIESE. Nicolaus Copernicus.
ANNA. It’s not at all what I imagined. That professor played a mean trick on him.
FRANZ. No.
ANNA. How shabby it looks. That will never impress anyone.
GIESE. Oh, but it will. It will. This is just the way books come from the printer. Just the pages, like this. But I shall have it bound for him. Something very grand, in red leather, with his name stamped in gold letters. Wait till you see it then.
ANNA. Let’s show it to him.
GIESE. All the times I urged him to do this … And how he fought against me. (with a fond look at COPERNICUS) The stubborn old mule.
ANNA. We should let him see his book.
FRANZ takes a few sections and gives them to ANNA .
ANNA turns her full attention to COPERNICUS , showing him the book, ignoring the other two.
GIESE keeps looking at the rest. FRANZ peers over his shoulder.
GIESE. I remember when he watched this eclipse. I went along with him to see it.
ANNA. It’s here, Mikoj.
FRANZ. Where was that, Your Reverence?
ANNA. It’s finally here.
GIESE. Right out there, in the meadow. The Moon was full. So bright. You could have read this book out there in the moonlight. It was that bright.
ANNA. (propping him up) I want you to have a good long look at this.
GIESE. I must have fallen asleep while waiting for it to start, because I remember how he woke me when it was time. He wouldn’t leave the instruments, even for a moment, so he made a … a howling sound. Like a wolf! Awoooooow!
ANNA. It’s your book, Mikoj. Your very own book, that you wrote.
GIESE. I jumped up. But then everything happened so slowly, very gradual. It took an hour, I think, or maybe more, for the shadow to completely cover the Moon.
ANNA. All your work, all those years, and here it is, at last.
GIESE. And you know what happened then? The Moon turned red.
FRANZ. Really?
ANNA. (putting pages in his hands) Hold it. Feel it. Isn’t it wonderful?
GIESE. One of the most beautiful sights I ever saw.
ANNA. Mikoj?
COPERNICUS slumps over, letting the pages fall to the floor.
Blackout. Choir sings “Salve Mater Misericordiae.”
SCENE xvii. CEMETERY
FUNERAL
The bowed heads of mourners, with the BISHOP presiding, suggest a graveside.
BISHOP. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
ALL. Amen.
BISHOP. Blessed are you, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, for revealing the mysteries of Thy Kingdom.
ALL. Amen.
BISHOP. I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
ALL. Amen.
ANNA. (pushing her way toward the BISHOP) This, too!
BISHOP. Who is this woman?
ANNA. It’s only right.
FRANZ. (coming to her aid) What are you doing, Miss Anna?
ANNA. He would want this. I know he would.
ANNA starts to throw her package into the grave.
BISHOP. Stop her.
FRANZ. (taking the package) Let me help you, Miss Anna.
ANNA lets herself cry in FRANZ’s arms.
GIESE. (receiving the package from FRANZ) It’s his manuscript.
BISHOP. Get her out of here.
FRANZ. Come with me, Miss Anna.
FRANZ walks ANNA downstage.
The BISHOP and GIESE remain behind, in darkness.
RHETICUS steps in front of ANNA and FRANZ.
FRANZ. I knew you’d come back.
ANNA. You!
RHETICUS (to FRANZ) Were you with him at the end?
ANNA. He doesn’t need you anymore.
GIESE. (joining them) What seems to be the trouble here?
FRANZ. I said he’d come, didn’t I? I knew he would.
ANNA. (to GIESE) Don’t let him have that. He doesn’t deserve it.
GIESE. (to FRANZ) Take her someplace where she can sit and rest.
FRANZ obeys.
ANNA. (exiting, crying) Let that go to the grave with him. He would want to have it with him.
GIESE. You recognize this, of course.
RHETICUS. Did he see it? The finished book?
GIESE. Oh, yes. It arrived just in time.
RHETICUS. The moment I left it with the courier, I thought, “Why did I do that? Why don’t I go and give it to him myself?” But it had already gone. I started out the next morning, hoping to … And now …
GIESE. He was so pleased to see it. To hold it in his hands. Yes. And then he …
RHETICUS. But he did see it? He knew that I …
GIESE. He knew. Yes, my son. We are all so grateful to you, for what you’ve done. When I will read his book, it will bring him back to life for me.
GIESE bows his head, grieving. RHETICUS also bows, puts a hand on GIESE’s shoulder.
GIESE. (handing him the manuscript) Here. You should have this. As much as I would like to keep it for my own … for my comfort …
RHETICUS. He wouldn’t let me take it.
GIESE. Now it belongs to you.
RHETICUS. You keep it. You’re his …
GIESE. No. You have been the chief instigator in this affair. It’s yours.
RHETICUS takes the manuscript.
GIESE. He’ll never know what anyone thought about it … What people will say when they …
RHETICUS. No. They can say what they will, and he’ll never know.
GIESE. What are they saying?
RHETICUS. I’m almost glad that he can’t …
GIESE. What’s the reaction? Do you know?
> RHETICUS. It’s … not as bad as he thought. Not what he feared.
GIESE. But not … good?
RHETICUS. No one is ready for what he had to say. The mathematicians I know, they’re happy. They just take what they need from the book, and ignore the rest.
GIESE. Ignore it?
RHETICUS. They skip over that part.
GIESE. I didn’t think anyone could ignore an idea like that.
Beat.
GIESE. But you believed him?
RHETICUS. He had no real proof.
GIESE. God rest his soul.
Beat.
GIESE. Everything is so still.
Beat.
RHETICUS. Is it?
GIESE. Hm?
RHETICUS. You know. Is it still? Or is it … ?
GIESE. What do you think?
RHETICUS. Sometimes, when I remember how he … When I hear his voice inside my head, I swear, I can almost feel it turning.
Blackout. The end.
Part Three
Aftermath
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the Earth abideth for ever.
The Sun also ariseth, and the Sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
The wind … whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
All things are full of labor; man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
The thing that hath been it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the Sun.
—ECCLESIASTES 1:4–9
“A generation passes away, and a generation comes, but the Earth stands forever.” Does it seem here as if Solomon wanted to argue with the astronomers? No; rather, he wanted to warn people of their own mutability, while the Earth, home of the human race, remains always the same, the motion of the Sun perpetually returns to the same place, the wind blows in a circle and returns to its starting point, rivers flow from their sources into the sea, and from the sea return to the sources, and finally, as these people perish, others are born. Life’s tale is ever the same; there is nothing new under the Sun.
You do not hear any physical dogma here. The message is a moral one, concerning something self-evident and seen by all eyes but seldom pondered. Solomon therefore urges us to ponder.
