PHOEBUS: No. Not for all the Devils in Hell!
CLAUDE FROLLO: I tried to help you. You don’t wish it. That’s fine.
PHOEBUS (mocking him): One moment, friend. Would you really like to help me? Truly?
CLAUDE FROLLO: Yes.
PHOEBUS (laughing): Well, then, lend me a sou!
CLAUDE FROLLO (after a moment’s hesitation): Here it is. (Phoebus puts out his hand) But on one condition.
PHOEBUS: Name it.
CLAUDE FROLLO: Hide me in some corner where I can, if necessary, help you.
PHOEBUS (aside): He keeps at it. (pointing to the door to the right) Go into that room if you like.
CLAUDE FROLLO: In that room? So be it.
PHOEBUS: Go in quickly. I heard eight rings at Saint-Severin.
CLAUDE FROLLO (aside): Perhaps she won’t come.
PHOEBUS: I hear someone coming. Go! I will leave the key on your side.
(La Falourdel enters from the left.)
LA FALOURDEL: The woman is here. Where’s the money?
PHOEBUS (giving her the sou): Here, old woman.
LA FALOURDEL: Thanks, Monsieur.
(She leaves. Phoebus goes to the door on the right.)
PHOEBUS: The key is on his side, but the bolt is on mine. (he slips the bolt)
(Esmeralda enters left and stops on the threshold, looking confused.)
PHOEBUS: Come in, come in, my pretty. Shame be you.
ESMERALDA: O, Captain Phoebus, please don’t despise me. For I feel what I’m about to do is very wrong.
PHOEBUS: Despise you? Great God! Why should I?
ESMERALDA: For having come here.
PHOEBUS: On that subject, my lovely, you misunderstand me. I ought not to despise you–but hate you.
ESMERALDA: Hate me? Why? What did I do?
PHOEBUS: For your having required so much wooing.
ESMERALDA: Alas, it’s true that I’m breaking a vow. I’ll never find my true parents now. The amulet will lose its power. But what of it! Oh! Captain Phoebius, I love you so much.
PHOEBUS: So you do love me. (he throws his arm about Esmeralda’s waist)
ESMERALDA (gently separating from him): Captain Phoebus, you’re good, you’re generous, you’re handsome. You saved me, I who am merely a poor lost child of Bohemia. For a long time, I’ve dreamed of a handsome Captain who would save my life. It was of you that I was dreaming, before I knew you. In my dream, my Captain had a beautiful outfit like yours, a great bearing and a sword. Walk around a bit so I can see you all grand and magnificent.
(Phoebus prances around smiling.)
ESMERALDA: How I love hearing the ring of your spurs.
PHOEBUS: Girl!
ESMERALDA (looking at him adoringly): How handsome you are. Your name, Phoebus, is a beautiful name. I love your name. I love your sword. Draw your sword, Captain Phoebus, so I can see it.
PHOEBUS (drawing his sword, smiling): You’re such a child!
ESMERALDA (taking the sword and kissing it): You’re the sword of a brave man. I love my Captain.
PHOEBUS (drawing her to the oak bench): Come, sit beside me and listen to me.
ESMERALDA (giving him a little slap on his mouth): No, no, I won’t listen to you. Do you love me? I want you to tell me you love me.
PHOEBUS (half-kneeling and very smoothly, as if he’d said this a million times before): Do I love you, angel of my life? My body, my blood, my soul–all are yours, all are for you. I love you and I have never loved anyone but you.
ESMERALDA: Is it really true? Haven’t you said it to others before?
PHOEBUS: Ah. Perhaps. I don’t know–but I certainly never said it like today. (giving her a kiss)
ESMERALDA: Oh! This is the moment I should die.
PHOEBUS: Die? What are you saying? It’s the moment you should live. Do you love me?
ESMERALDA: Oh! Yes I do!
PHOEBUS: Well, that’s all. You will see how I love you, too. You will see how happy we will be (coming to her and gently removing her ruffle)
ESMERALDA (dreamily): Captain Phoebus, will you instruct me in your religion.
PHOEBUS (laughing): My religion! Me instruct you in my religion! Why?
ESMERALDA: So we can get married.
PHOEBUS: Married? Bah! What kind of folly is this, my beautiful temptress? Does one marry one’s lover? (pulling off her ruffle)
ESMERALDA (crossing her arms over her breasts): Captain Phoebus!
PHOEBUS (fingering her amulet): What’s this?
ESMERALDA: Don’t touch it! It’s my protector. That’s what will enable me to find my family again, if I remain worthy. Oh, please, Captain leave me alone. My poor mother! Where is she? Help me! Leave me alone! (she pulls away)
PHOEBUS (recoiling, in a cold tone): Ah! That’s fine. I see you don’t love me at all.
ESMERALDA (wrapping her arms around his neck): I don’t love you? I don’t love my Phoebus? What are you saying? You’re tearing my heart! Ah, never mind the amulet! Never mind my mother! So I won’t ever know her... I do love you. And you were right, we won’t marry. That would bore you. And then, what am I, a poor dancing girl, compared to you? What a joke! A Gypsy from the streets marrying a Captain of the King’s Guards! I was crazy! Phoebus, my beloved Phoebus, do you see me? It’s me, Esmeralda, look at me. I’m only a little girl whom you can’t reject, because she’s come here by herself just to love you.
(Their lips unite in a kiss. After a moment, Claude Frollo climbs through the back window. He comes forward with slow steps behind Phoebus. Suddenly, he stabs him with a dagger.)
ESMERALDA (seeing him, screaming): Ah!
PHOEBUS (dying): Ah, you’ve betrayed me!
(Phoebus dies. Claude Frollo disappears through the window, jumping into the river.)
ESMERALDA (running and calling): Help! Help! (she rushes to Phoebus’ body) Phoebus! My Phoebus! He doesn’t respond! He’s dead!
(The door is forced open. The Police appear and arrest Esmeralda.)
SERGEANT: Our Captain! Murdered! Seize this witch!
ESMERALDA: Phoebus! Phoebus! My Phoebus!
CURTAIN
Scene IX
Honorable Amends
The Square or Parvis of Notre-Dame. To the right we can see obliquely the facade of the Cathedral. To the left, there is the Gondelaurier residence, with its overhanging balcony. A crowd stands in the square, surrounding a gibbet. Jehan Frollo, Gringoire and Clopin Trouillefou are huddled together in a corner.
JEHAN FROLLO: Noon! The cart which is bringing our poor Esmeralda to her death is, at this very moment, leaving from La Tournelle! Which of our men is posted there?
CLOPIN TROUILLEFOU: Mathias, with five or six other brave rogues. But there’s nothing to be done now. Ah, good Jehan, you have the daring of newcomers who know nothing of the obstacles. We’ve willingly put our numbers on her route, and told them to be ready for any opportunities, but what can the Court of Miracles do against a swarm of archers?
GRINGOIRE: In broad daylight! At night, at least, there would have been a chance to save her. But, my dear fellow, no one is bold in the sunshine.
JEHAN FROLLO: Still, we can’t let our poor sister die a terrible death on that horrible gibbet, without trying to snatch her away. The cart must be entering in the Island of La Cité by now?
CLOPIN TROILLEFOU: Yes. But even though the streets are very narrow, they’re being held by armed guards.
JEHAN FROLLO: But what about here, on the Parvis, where she’s supposed to make her Honorable Amends? Or at the Place de Greve, where the gibbet is?
CLOPIN TROUILLEFOU: There, we’ll be numerous enough.
JEHAN FROLLO: Perhaps then the crowd will join with us?
CLOPIN TROUILLEFOU: I doubt it. It’s pretty much accepted that Esmeralda is guilty of the murder of Captain Phoebus.
JEHAN FROLLO (excitedly): She can’t have done it! She was besotted with him! Why can’t they see it?
GRINGOIRE: Alas! Mostly because she was found guilt
y. (gesture by Jehan) Yes, that doesn’t mean anything, I agree, but she did admit to the crime.
JEHAN FROLLO: Because they tortured her! That means nothing too! She confessed to anything because they put her to the question.
GRINGOIRE: Then who would the real murderer be?
JEHAN FROLLO: By the Devil’s horns, it was that fiend–the Demon Monk. The one I left with Phoebus the night of the murder. I told that repeatedly to the Judge.
GRINGOIRE: For all the good it did! Esmeralda was still found guilty of murder. Your deposition only served to convict her of being a witch and a tool of Satan. And for good measure, they also condemened the little goat, too. Poor Djali. He was beginning to love me as much as his mistress.
CLOPIN TROUILLEFOU: Friend Jehan, there’s only one man who could save Esmeralda, that’s Captain Phoebus himself–and I believe he’s still hovering near death.
JEHAN FROLLO: No, he isn’t! I heard they took him to the home of his relatives, the Gondelauriers. But he, too, thinks Esmeralda is guilty.
THE CROWD: There she is! There she is!
(A tumbrel, surrounded by horsemen dressed in violet tunics with a white cross, arrives onto the square. The Guards beat a passage for it. Esmeralda, in a long white chemise, her hands tied, her hair disheveled, is seated in the cart. The goat is at her feet. The doors of the Cathedral open. Monks in black capes advance, singing death psalms.)
MONKS (singing): Non timebo millia populi circumdantis me: exsurge, Domine; salvum me fac, Deus!
(The tumbrel is now before the portal. Pierrat Torterue, the Executioner, unties Esmeralda’s hands and makes her get down.)
MONKS (singing): De ventre inferi clamavi, et exaudisti vocem meam, et projecisti me in profundum in corde mans, et flumem circumdedit me.
(Claude Frollo, dressed in a black chasuble with a silver cross, his head covered with a hood, steps and approaches Esmerelda.)
CLAUDE FROLLO (loudly): Girl, are you ready to die?
ESMERALDA: Yes. Phoebus is dead, I only wish to die.
CLAUDE FROLLO: Have you asked God’s pardon for all your sins and failings?
(With a solemn gesture, he waves aside the Executioner and his assistants; they respectfully move back. The Archdeacon then orders Esmeralda to come closer.)
CLAUDE FROLLO (low): Listen, I can still save you.
ESMERALDA (looking at him): Who are you?
CLAUDE FROLLO: A man more tortured than you by all your suffering, more aching than you in your agony. A man who has doomed you, but who now can and wants to save you.
ESMERALDA: Ah! It’s you! Phoebus’ murderer. Go away, specter! Go away or I will denounce you.
CLAUDE FROLLO: They won’t believe you. You would only add a scandal to a crime.
ESMERALDA: Oh, wretch! I know you now. All those months, you’ve pursued me, threatened me, terrified me. What do you have against me? Do you hate me so much?
CLAUDE FROLLO: No! I love you.
ESMERALDA: Some love!
CLAUDE FROLLO: The love of a damned soul! Listen. Tell me only this. Not even that you love me, just that you will let me love you. Say that and I will save you.
ESMERALDA: No! I will not! Never. Thank God that no one can save me now.
CLAUDE FROLLO: I can do it, I promise you. Notre-Dame is a holy place of asylum. I only have to take your hand and draw you inside. The Justice of Man stops on that threshold. Allow me to love you. Permit me to save you. Have pity on me, have pity on yourself!
ESMERALDA: No! I hate you. You killed my Phoebus. I want to join him. Be yours, accursed priest? Never!
CLAUDE FROLLO: Well, then you will never belong to any one. (loudly again) I nunc, anima anceps, et sit tibi Deus misenicors!
(He then turns and runs away, back inside the Cathedral. The Executioner comes to take Esmeralda. He puts a lit yellow wax candle in her hand and makes her kneel before the steps of Notre-Dame. The people kneel too.)
MONKS (singing): Omnes gurgites tui super me transierunt.
(The Executioner lifts Esmeralda and puts her back in the tumbrel. At that moment, Phoebus, pale and enveloped in a cloak, appears on the Gondelaurier’s balcony.)
ESMERALDA (seeing Phoebus): Phoebus! My Phoebus!
(Phoebus abruptly goes back inside.)
ESMERALDA: Oh, Phoebus! Do you believe that I am your murderer?
(She faints. Two of the Executioner’s aides put her back in the tumbrel.)
EXECUTIONER: Now to the Place de Greve! To the gibbet!
(Suddenly, Quasimodo slides down a rope on the facade of the Cathedral. He rushes the Executioner’s aides, knocking them over, and pulls Esmeralda from the tumbrel. Holding her high above his head, he carries her across the open doors of Notre-Dame.)
QUASIMODO (in the threshold, in a powerful voice): Asylum! Asylum!
JEHAN FROLLO: Asylum!
GRINGOIRE: Asylum!
THE CROWD (clapping their hands): Asylum! Asylum! Hurrah!
CURTAIN
Act IV
Scene X
Sanctuary
A vaulted gallery near the rooftop of Notre-Dame. To the right, there is a door, leading to another gallery. Opposite it is a stairway. Against the wall, there is pulpit with a prayer-book on it. A lamp is suspended just above it. Next to it is a small door, leading to a small cubicle. The back of the stage is made up of colonnades.
Quasimodo enters running, carrying Esmeralda He deposits her on a bench made up from a block of stone.
QUASIMODO (looking at her tenderly): You’re saved! Saved!
ESMERALDA (shaking her head sadly): Why did you save me?
QUASIMODO (looking at her without understanding or hearing her): You spoke? You want something? Wait.
(He runs out.)
ESMERALDA (alone): Yes, I will die soon. That will be for the best. And yet, Phoebus, my Phoebus, lives. I saw it, like in a dream! But then, I dreamed that he turned away, fled from me. But how could he believe that such a murderous blow could ever be struck by one who would have given her very life a thousand times to save his? Yet, didn’t I confess to it? Didn’t I give in, weak woman, to torture? Ah, I ought to have let my fingernails be torn out rather than utter such words...
(Reenter Quasimodo, leading the goat which runs to his mistress.)
ESMERALDA: Djali! Ah, it’s you my Djali! I’d forgotten you. Oh, you’re not an ingrate.
QUASIMODO (placing before Esmeralda a basket that contains clothes, bread and a bottle): Here! Here’s something to eat; here’s a novice’s dress that the women of charity have left for you at the Church’s door. You can’t stay in that criminal’s dress. (he goes to bring everything in and the goat follows him)
ESMERALDA (averting her eyes): Thank you!
QUASIMODO: I frighten you. I am really ugly, huh? Don’t look at me, only listen. This is your place of refuge. You can stay here during the day. There’s another door leading to the outside gallery. At night, you can wander throughout the whole church. But don’t go out–ever! Neither by day nor by night. You would be doomed. They would kill you and I would die. (he starts to move away)
ESMERALDA: You’re leaving me? Stay.
QUASIMODO (aside, continuing to move away): She must be telling me to get out.
ESMERALDA (going to him and pulling him back by his sleeve): Stay! I want to speak with you!
QUASIMODO (incredulous): You told me to stay?
ESMERALDA (nodding affirmatively): Yes.
QUASIMODO: You see... I’m deaf, too.
ESMERALDA: Poor man.
QUASIMODO (with a melancholy smile): You think that’s all I need, right? Yes, I’m deaf. That’s the way I’m made. Horrible, isn’t it? As for you, you’re so beautiful. Never have I seen my ugliness as I do now. When I compare myself to you, I really pity myself, poor monster that I am. You must take me for a beast, right? You, you’re a beam of sunshine, a rose petal, a bird’s song! And me, I’m something terrifying, neither man nor animal, a thing more hammered and more deformed than an
y stone gargoyle. (with a heart-rending shout) Yes, and I am deaf, too! But you can speak to me with gestures, with signs. And I will quickly learn to understand you by the movement of your lips, by your glances.
ESMERALDA: Then, tell me why you saved me.
QUASIMODO (who watched her attentively as she spoke): I understood. You asked me why I saved you. You’ve forgiven the wretch who tried to carry you off one night; a wretch to whom, the very next day, you brought help on the pillory. A drop of water and a little pity. That’s more than I can repay with my life. You forgave the wretch. I never forgot.
ESMERALDA: Good and sad Quasimodo–
QUASIMODO (moving towards the outside gallery): See, the towers are quite high. A man who falls from them would die before touching the pavement. Whenever you’d like for me to fall for you, you won’t even have to say a word, just a glance will suffice.
ESMERALDA (whose glance has followed Quasimodo’s gestures): Ah!
QUASIMODO: What are you looking at?
ESMERALDA (arms extended): Him! Him again! Phoebus!
QUASIMODO: Yes. I see what you see. And I recognize him.
ESMERALDA: My Phoebus!
QUASIMODO: He’s the Captain of the Guards who came to your rescue the night I tried to carry you off.
ESMERALDA (in despair): Misery! I’m too far away. He can’t hear me. The day is ending–he can’t see me.
QUASIMODO (after a silence, with effort): Would you like me to go fetch him?
ESMERALDA (with a cry of joy): Oh! Yes, go, run, run fast! My Captain. Oh! Bring him to me! I will love you!
Frankenstein vs The Hunchback of Notre-Dame Page 12
