(concerning her husband, as she rides through the woods escorted by Paolo) Where does he hunt?
PPaolo
In the high mountain passes.
(sarcastically) He is brave, with those deer...
But, they suffer less than me, do they not? He kills them quickly.
PPaolo
(indignant) He must stop! It is a crime, against...
PPaolo
(looks directly at her) Against you. Your beauty. You're the Pope's daughter; how can he stand it?!
(looks away)... The Pope doesn't know.
PPaolo
If I could write, I would send him a letter.
(looks at him)... Am I beautiful, Paolo?
PPaolo
(smiles)... You're the most beautiful thing I've yet seen.
(smiles) Lift me down. (Paolo helps her dismount her horse)
PPaolo
... I could adjust his saddle.
(puzzled) You could adjust my Lord's saddle? (pause) He would fall. He would fright. (starts to smile) He would return home...tamed.
PPaolo
From a fall? He would never.
(smiles mischievously) What if I had you whipped, for wickedness?
PPaolo
(shakes his head) You would never.
PPaolo
(smiles) Yes- of that, I am sure.
(looks into a spring-pool with Paolo) Look at you.
Like Narcissus, in the spring waters.
PPaolo
Narcissus? (Lucrezia looks at him)
You don't know Narcissus?
PPaolo
I can neither read, nor write, my Lady Lucrezia. (Lucrezia leans close to him and they look back at the pool)
... 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)
PPaolo
It is impossible. (pulls her upright)
To fall in love with a reflection?
PPaolo
To kiss it. (they kiss)
... And I thought I would never know sweetness. (they kiss again)
PPaolo
(sharply) You mock me, fair lady.
VVertrice
If I did, forgive me- kind sir.
VVertrice
Vertrice. (smiles and takes his arm as they walk through Rome) I mistook you for a client! A girl has to work.
PPaolo
Must you so debase yourself?
VVertrice
If I do not lift my skirts, I starve.
PPaolo
Better to starve, surely.
VVertrice
What, like the rest of Rome? (gestures at some of the commoners) They were fed yesterday, but today they starve.
PPaolo
But, there is such wealth and evidence here, my lady- how could anybody starve?
VVertrice
There is wealth, of course- but, we starve. Whilst Lucrezia Borgia dines on a silver plate. With a fork. You have heard of a fork, Paolo?
VVertrice
Well, it's all the rage, now- and I'll bet Lucrezia Borgia dines with a fork of solid gold.
PPaolo
Who walks with me?! (they don't answer; he breaks into a run, turns a corner and sees another cloaked man ahead of him) I mean you no harm, kind sir, whoever you may be! (he tries to flee but is caught by the other two men, who drag him forward; the third man removes his hood, revealing himself to be Juan)
Suicide. A sin even a Pope can't forgive. (puts a noose around Paolo's neck and tightens it) Because dead men can't confess.
The Borgias · 70 quotes
