(playing cards with her two youngest children) Even Joffrey has heard, have you not?
JBJoffrey Borgia
The Pope is dead?
You know what that means?
I know there will be an election.
(enters after Cesare) And the city will be bedlam until it is over.
Lucrezia BorgiaDo you think our father can win, Juan?
Are we allowed to dream, Mother?
Your father found ways to love and care for us in this house, but I'm not sure that, as Pope, he can do the same.
As Pope, he can do what he wants.
(gives him a direct look) Are you sure? Kings and Popes and Emperors belong to their people, not to their families.
So- we allow the election to run its' course, and he won't be Pope?
What other course is there? It's in the hands of God.
(smiles) It's in the hands of the College of Cardinals, Mother. Not quite the same thing. (gestures to Joffrey to play a particular card) This one.
Lucrezia Borgia
(concerning her husband, as she rides through the woods escorted by Paolo) Where does he hunt?
In the high mountain passes.
Lucrezia Borgia
(sarcastically) He is brave, with those deer...
Lucrezia Borgia
But, they suffer less than me, do they not? He kills them quickly.
Lucrezia Borgia
Nightly.
(indignant) He must stop! It is a crime, against...
Lucrezia Borgia
(sadly) Against what?
(looks directly at her) Against you. Your beauty. You're the Pope's daughter; how can he stand it?!
Lucrezia Borgia
(looks away)... The Pope doesn't know.
If I could write, I would send him a letter.
Lucrezia Borgia
(looks at him)... Am I beautiful, Paolo?
(smiles)... You're the most beautiful thing I've yet seen.
Lucrezia Borgia
(smiles) Lift me down. (Paolo helps her dismount her horse)
... I could adjust his saddle.
Lucrezia Borgia
(puzzled) You could adjust my Lord's saddle? (pause) He would fall. He would fright. (starts to smile) He would return home...tamed.
Lucrezia Borgia
... What if he died?
From a fall? He would never.
Lucrezia Borgia
(smiles mischievously) What if I had you whipped, for wickedness?
(shakes his head) You would never.
Lucrezia Borgia
Are you sure?
(smiles) Yes- of that, I am sure.
Lucrezia Borgia
(looks into a spring-pool with Paolo) Look at you.
Lucrezia Borgia
Like Narcissus, in the spring waters.
Narcissus? (Lucrezia looks at him)
Lucrezia Borgia
You don't know Narcissus?
I can neither read, nor write, my Lady Lucrezia. (Lucrezia leans close to him and they look back at the pool)
Lucrezia Borgia
... Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection, in the waters of a spring. Do not move. (she bends and kisses Paolo's reflection in the water)
It is impossible. (pulls her upright)
Lucrezia Borgia
To fall in love with a reflection?
Lucrezia Borgia
... And I thought I would never know sweetness. (they kiss again)
Lucrezia Borgia
I must return to my husband in the morning.
Lucrezia Borgia
Because he is my husband. Because our father needs his allegiance.
I should keep you here in chains- I suspect you would be happier.
Lucrezia Borgia
(looks sharply at him) Why do you question my happiness?
Because something happened. I know it.
Lucrezia Borgia
What do you know?
Your eyes. (Lucrezia turns away) You no longer walk on air. (she walks away, he follows her) Where is my young sister hiding?
Lucrezia Borgia
I am the Lord Sforza's wife, Brother.
If he does ill by you, I shall do ill by him.
Lucrezia Borgia
He would be wise to be kind, then. (they both stop)
What are... his pleasures?
Lucrezia Borgia
Hunting. (bitterly) The marital bed.
(exhales angrily) I dislike him already.
Lucrezia Borgia
(smirks, sits) But he had an accident, Brother- and now, he can indulge in neither.
Lucrezia Borgia
Yes. God is good.
Lucrezia Borgia
Unfortunately, yes. (Cesare sits down, looks at her)
...You are no longer a child, Sis. I won't forgive him for that.
Lucrezia Borgia
... There was a reason for my marriage, Brother. (pause, looks at him) Remind me of it. (Cesare looks away, then leaves)
We are in danger of losing the initiative, Your Highness! (King Charles motions for him to shut up) Your Highness, I strongly urge you to-
You will wait! (pause) I will not harm her.
(to Lucrezia) Lucrezia! My God-
Lucrezia Borgia
They hold us hostage, Brother.
Lucrezia Borgia
Julia Farnese and I. We were riding to Rome-
Lucrezia Borgia
Would you survive this day, dear Juan?
We have a battle to fight.
Lucrezia Borgia
Believe me, you have lost it already-
Lucrezia Borgia
(sharply) I have heard one roar of cannon! A hundred more, and your whole army will be dead and bleeding, and you have yet to see their pikes!
(stubbornly) I will not accept defeat-
Lucrezia Borgia
Then do not call it that! Call it common sense! Say the French King asked for terms. You offered...
Lucrezia Borgia
His safe passage to Naples, in exchange for... his bloodless entry into Rome.
Lucrezia, he will pillage the place! Depose our father!
Lucrezia Borgia
Leave that to me. (she returns to Charles) It was my brother, Your Highness!
Lucrezia Borgia
The Gonfalionere of the Papal Armies. He thought you meant to sack Rome, like the Goths and Vandal hordes! I told him you're a gentleman- you had no such idea. (Charles glances away ashamedly) You had no such idea, had you?
Lucrezia Borgia
Your goal is Naples. (Della Rovere looks quickly at the King)
Lucrezia Borgia
(smiles) So... my brother, the Duke of Gandia, the Gonfaloniere of the Papal Armies, bids you welcome to Rome.
(watching Lucrezia's baby sleep) Can I hold him?
Lucrezia Borgia
And wake him? That would be cruelty indeed.
I must hold you, then. (he hugs her) Tell me again, my love- who was his father?
Lucrezia Borgia
(smiles sadly) A groom, Paolo. But I called him Narcissus, so divine was his face.
Lucrezia Borgia
(smiles up at him) You have read your romances, dear Brother; you must know that such a love is impossible.
Impossible loves- I am very much afraid they can become an addiction.
Lucrezia Borgia
... There is one your heart must find room for, Cesare. One you must love before you can love anyone.
And, that one would be?...
Lucrezia Borgia
(squeezes his hand) Yourself.
Lucrezia Borgia
(returns to her apartments after her midnight meeting with Paolo) Is he sleeping, nurse? (pulls back the curtains around her son's bed to reveal Cesare sitting next to it)
(mildly disapproving) He did miss his mother.
Lucrezia Borgia
(shocked) Cesare!
Lucrezia Borgia
No, Brother. (closes the curtains, walks around the cradle) But, this child has a father.
Lucrezia Borgia
...Who has come to Rome.
Lucrezia Borgia
You disapprove?
Not yet, but I know those who would.
Lucrezia Borgia
My father-
Lucrezia Borgia
(sighs, sprawls over her own bed) My husband whipped him. My brother would flay him.
Cesare Borgia': Which is why you go out hooded.
Lucrezia Borgia
At night, like a phantom. (pause, she sighs, Cesare looks down) Cesare, he suffered for me in absolute silence. He would've died for me. The least I can do is let him see his child-
Lucrezia Borgia
(smiles slightly)... I did. Perhaps, I do.
(stands, approaches her) Then you must see him.
Lucrezia Borgia
You would help me?
(sprawls over the bed next to her) Once, and only once. Just... tell me what to do.
Lucrezia Borgia
Find us a room, where we can spend one night together away from prying eyes-
(meets her eyes) One night. You promise?
Lucrezia Borgia
I promise.
(pause) Go to our mother's house, tomorrow evening. She needs to see her grandchild, does she not?
Lucrezia Borgia
(smiles) And?...
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
(trying to console Lucrezia, who is in deep mourning after Paolo's "suicide" and is refusing to nurse her crying son) Please talk to me, my love. You are the light of my life... the light of this family's life. If that light goes... (clutches her hand, worried)
Lucrezia Borgia
... I would ask just one thing of you, Father.
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
Anything.
Lucrezia Borgia
(looks him straight in the eye) Permit my Paolo a Christian burial.
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
(closes his eyes quickly) He is a suicide- it is impossible. (Lucrezia sits up, holding a scrap of paper)
Lucrezia Borgia
This note was pinned to his sleeve. (Alexander takes it and examines it)
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
Yes. A suicide note-
Lucrezia Borgia
(angrily) But he could not read or write Father! (Alexander looks up at her, startled) My Paolo could not even pen his own name. (long pause)
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
... So, it was murder. (pause) Where is the murderer?
Lucrezia Borgia
...Too close for comfort.
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
(sighs angrily) I will not have this family at war with itself!
Lucrezia Borgia
(coldly) And I would have my Paolo saved, from the fires of Hell.
(nods resignedly)... And your infant must... feed.
Lucrezia Borgia
(observing the poor as she and Julia Farnese walk through Rome) These children need an orphanage!
Indeed, they do. But, the nunneries that used to care for them are starved of funds- and the orphanage on Piazzo Naverna is now a Cardinal's palace. Here, once stood a statue of the goddess Selas Minnerva- and here flowed crystal springwater from the Alban Hills.
Lucrezia Borgia
Statues are easily restored; water is not.
(looks directly at her) So- I would use my wit, and yours, to outwit those who divert funds, and water, from poor houses and palaces.
Lucrezia Borgia
(nods) Cardinals- and the Curia.
You are far too clever. (takes her arm and leads her away)
Lucrezia Borgia
(smiles) It would be fun, to outwit a brace of Cardinals.
More than fun- it would save lives. And, there is one more brain I would engage in our cause: your mother's.
Lucrezia Borgia
(chuckles) My mother? But, she-
You must admit, three minds would be better than two. And, your mother and I are far beyond such enmities.
(enters Lucrezia's quarters to find her watching her sleeping son Giovanni) The sleep of the innocent. (pause) I promised you a heart, Sister.
Lucrezia Borgia
Whose? Your own?
I promised you the heart of Giovanni Sforza- on a dinner plate. (Lucrezia looks shocked) His blood... on this knife will have to suffice. (unwraps the bloodstained blade and shows it to her)
Lucrezia Borgia
... What does it say of us, Brother, that you...promise me this, and I would accept?
Do you accept? (Lucrezia looks up at him, then walks across the room)
Lucrezia Borgia
I would rather have my innocence back. Be as I was, before I married that... vile man.
(strokes her cheek) Impossible, I'm afraid- for either of us. (the Pope walks into the room)
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
Prime has been sung, terse approaches (kisses Lucrezia) yet some barely rouse their souls! (opens the window to let in sunlight and sighs in satisfaction) Darkness...into light!
Lucrezia Borgia
Father, Giovanni is sleeping.
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
Oh, yes yes yes! (lowers his voice, to Cesare) You have, um... broached the matter, my son?
Lucrezia Borgia
(looks at Cesare)... What matter? (Cesare looks away guiltily)
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
... The matter of Forli. (gives both of them a direct look) Our need for... the most sacred alliance. (pause) The matter, in a word, of marriage-
Lucrezia Borgia
(angry) Ah, I see. I am to be put back in the marketplace. (glares at Cesare, who folds his arms) Did you know of this, Brother? (turns to their father) And how secure did the last alliance you sold me into prove to be?!
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
(firmly, but guiltily) It is your father's wish- we would have you married! It's as simple as that.
Lucrezia Borgia
(laughs sarcastically) I will not marry. Never again. So, there let it rest.
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
We are shocked by this... ingratitude!
Lucrezia Borgia
Even so, I will not marry.
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
(sharply) It is a daughter's duty to marry her father's choice! (Giovanni begins to wake)
Lucrezia Borgia
So, I am to have no voice in the matter?! I am to lie on my back and wait to be ravaged by a beast of your choosi-
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
Enough! Enough! This language... does not become you. (points at Cesare) And save your salt- say nothing.
(coldly) I haven't uttered a word.
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
No, but we can hear you thinking. (gestures at Lucrezia) This will come to pass- you shall see. Even if we drag you to the Basilica! (storms out as Giovanni begins to fuss, Lucrezia glares at Cesare and goes to quiet him)
(sighs and sits down) Like me, you have just declared a war.
Your father claims I have warned you against the dangers of marriage. (Lucrezia smiles) You have incurred his extreme displeasure. I think it might make him ill.
Lucrezia Borgia
Well, then father and daughter will be ill together! the thought of marriage turns my stomach.
It's within his prerogative to marry you to whomever he may please.
Lucrezia Borgia
Well, then let him do it. (flops back over her bed) And he can fish me out of the Tiber.
(looks at her) He's asked me to vet suitors on your behalf.
Lucrezia Borgia
(sits up, looking offended) And you agreed?
More or less. (Lucrezia sighs angrily) At least it leaves you with a choice! (sits next to her daughter)
Lucrezia Borgia
Mother, the man I married was a beast. I was little more than meat to him.
And yet, you took the stableboy as your lover. (they both smile)
Lucrezia Borgia
Well, that was different.
Then, there is hope for you yet.
Lucrezia Borgia
... I do not deny that the warm touch of a lover would ease the pain.
(takes Lucrezia by the chin and looks at her) So- all is not lost. (embraces her)
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
(storming into Vanozza's villa) Vanozza!... Vanozza!...Vanozza! (Vanozza enters the dining room at the same time as him) Did you know of this?
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
That our daughter, betrothed to one, gives herself to the brother?!
(sarcastically) Lucrezia? It's not possible- how could she be so foolish?
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
(impatient) With the help of those around her, perhaps? What advice did you give her, hmm?
(sits down) I merely said, that if she married to please you, she may yet love to please herself.
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
(sighs in exasperation) And you thought that wise?!
(curtly) I married one of your choosing, to be free to love you.
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
But you are not the Pope's daughter!
Rodrigo, she will love whom she chooses- she is a Borgia. (Lucrezia enters, Rodrigo angrily turns on her)
Lucrezia Borgia
I hear the Palavacini boys have gone. (walks past him)
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
Yes- because you would marry a pauper with a paintbrush! (Lucrezia kisses her mother,then turns to face him)
Lucrezia Borgia
(coldly) I would have married Calvino Palavacini, as you bid, dear Father- but, if I had followed my heart, I doubt I would have married either of them.
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
(sarcastically) Oh- so the future of this family is enthralled to your heart, hm? (Lucrezia's expression softens just a fraction)
Lucrezia Borgia
(strokes her father's chin)...If it is, it needs mending. Like my heart.
(limps into Lucrezia's room after her son's baptism) Sister. So, finally the bastard has a name. (Lucrezia glares at him as the maid leaves) Blessed by our Holy Father, and saved from damnation.
Lucrezia Borgia
(coldly) And you, dear Brother- will you be saved from damnation?
(puts his hand on the crib) The angels smile on me-
Lucrezia Borgia
(swats his hand away) Please don't! (Giovanni starts to fuss)
(leans malevolently close to her) One day, you'll realize that everything I've done has been for your own good. If you had tried to marry that waster from Genoa, the one with the paintbrush... I would've taken good care of him.
Lucrezia Borgia
(sarcastically) For the good of the family, no doubt?
(stares at her for a moment) Always. (limps across the room and sits)
Lucrezia Borgia
(angry and sad) Like you "took care" of Paolo- a stableboy- for the good of the family?!
(stares at her, indifferent) Exactly so. Everything I do is for the family. (Lucrezia looks nauseated) Were it not for our father's affection for your bastard son... I would've tossed that piglet into the Tiber at birth. It's the only baptism it deserves.
Lucrezia Borgia
We are all bastards. You, me, our brothers- we are all bastards!
Yes- perhaps. (stands up, limps menacingly close to her and Giovanni) But, we... are Borgia bastards. And there, dear Sis, lies the difference. (limps around the cradle, sets down his cane and picks up Giovanni) Hello, little piggy- time for a little dance, I think. (he walks onto the second floor the main hall, Lucrezia comes after him, frantic and enraged)
Lucrezia Borgia
Leave my baby! Juan, leave my baby alone! No, No!
Lucrezia Borgia
Leave my baby alone! (she finally manages to wrestle her son back from Juan's hands and flees back to the nursery)
Lucrezia Borgia
Stop!... Who are you?
AAAlfonso of Aragon
(smiles pleasantly) I'm Prince Alfonso D'Aragona, Duke of Bisceglie and Prince of Salerno.
Lucrezia Borgia
What are you doing here?
AAAlfonso of Aragon
(not realizing who she is) I'm suitor to the Lady Lucrezia, daughter of His Holiness Alexander VI, Pope of Rome.
Lucrezia Borgia
(annoyed) Indeed. Lucrezia Borgia? (Alfonso nods, she decides to toy with him)...Poor boy. Come! I will take you to her. (she leads him away from his entourage into her apartments) So, you are suitor to the Lady Lucrezia?
AAAlfonso of Aragon
I am.
Lucrezia Borgia
A great responsibility for one so young. Take off your cloak. (Alfonso looks puzzled then smiles slightly)
AAAlfonso of Aragon
If I remove my cloak, what will you remove in return?
Lucrezia Borgia
You'll see. (gestures for him to take off the cloak) The Lady Lucrezia has a great many suitors. Some are wheat... some are chaff. And it falls to me, to separate the one from the other. (Alfonso smiles and removes his cloak)
AAAlfonso of Aragon
I am neither wheat, nor chaff. I am Alfonso D'Aragona... and I am flesh and blood.
Lucrezia Borgia
(sizing him up) Turn around.
AAAlfonso of Aragon
(shrugs) If it pleases you. (slowly turns in a circle)
Lucrezia Borgia
(smiles slightly)... It pleases me.
AAAlfonso of Aragon
Now, you must do the same in return. (walks slowly around her)
Lucrezia Borgia
(turns slowly in a circle) If it pleases you.
AAAlfonso of Aragon
...It pleases me. (smiles) So... What now? How far, does your Lady Lucrezia care for this game to go on?
Lucrezia Borgia
(shrugs, approaches him) There is no limit. Just as one would have one's groom break in a new horse...so it is, with my Lady's lovers and me.
(triumphantly, brandishing the forged confession) Holy Father, I bring you the signed confession of the heretic Girolamo Savanarola of Florence! (he sees Juan's body and stops) What happened?
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
(gestures to Juan tearfully) He was... dragged from the Tiber. Dogs, cats... the stillborn offspring of prostitutes... and our son. (turns away)
Leave us, Cardinals. (Sforza, Piccolomini and Versucci exit)
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
(embraces Cesare) Who would do such a thing? Who would dare?! Who had cause to wish him harm?
Lucrezia Borgia
(coolly, staring down at her brother's body) Any one of the many he harmed. (Julia and Vanozza stare at her)
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
(spins around) What? (Cesare releases him and moves towards Lucrezia) What did you say?
Lucrezia Borgia
(looks away) Nothing, Father.
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
(angrily) What do you say?!
Lucrezia Borgia
(finally meets his eye) You asked, "who would do such a thing?" The answer is many people, Father. Many people.
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
(shocked and offended)...That does not stand! (gestures at Juan) Here lies your brother- murdered, in cold blood! And, you speak as if... (looks in disbelief at Cesare, Julia and Vanozza) "Many people?!" Many people, you say? Do you count yourself among that number?!
Lucrezia Borgia
I-
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
LET HER SPEAK!
Lucrezia Borgia
(steps forward, tearful and angry) What would you have me say?! You know what he did to me! What he took from me- you all do! And you stood by, for the honor of the family. (pause) I have wished him dead a thousand times. And now, you want me to mourn him? I'm sorry, Father, I cannot. (she steps back, next to Cesare)
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
(stunned, hurt and angry, to Cesare)... And you? He was your brother- you show no tears? Are you stone?
... I wept them all out for him, long ago. Over and over, I watched him fail, and I wept. (resentfully) You should know- you were there. And still, you- you granted him your every favor!
RBRodrigo Borgia/Alexander VI
(quietly, but with barely-contained rage) Take... yourselves, both... away from our SIGHT! (Cesare leads Lucrezia out)
The Borgias · 70 quotes
