Monday, March 19, 2012

Slight change in pace today, I've got a small interaction between Elizabeth and Catherine stuck in my head. It would be after Elizabeth's monologue in a vision, which in turn would be a response to a flashback of Catherine's where her parents are trying to make sense of her - or perhaps a scene right before she heads to Avignon? That makes for a nice way to bookend it, especially since I want to make Elizabeth's argument central to Catherine's final one.

If any of that makes sense, you should have a better idea of where this scene might go in a final draft of this play that I do.

[Elizabeth's Monologue]

CATHERINE

So what then? She wanted me to get drunk? I don't think you know my mother. And she's plenty of grandchildren.

ELIZABETH

God used to prepare His prophets for what they would face from birth. He chose you then, but He called you later. My point is that He also used to prepare the parents, tell them what lay in store, what they were getting in a holy offspring.

CATHERINE

And my parents were caught unawares?

ELIZABETH

They were faithful people. Your father gentle as a lamb, your mother tough but just and kind. You know this. You also know that they are not connected to God as you are, that they do not see their role in this world as you have been called to. They did not raise you to be an advisor to the Pope. They raised you to be a dutiful, prayerful, pure and holy fishwife.

CATHERINE

Do they wish that was what I was?

ELIZABETH

Sometimes. They weren't warned that you would be anything else. They weren't expecting it. They weren't ready.

CATHERINE

Why not?

ELIZABETH

Prophets aren't born anymore. Ultimately it's a good thing. Now they can and do come from anywhere. There are more of them about for it.

CATHERINE

Your relationship with your son...it was hard even so, wasn't it?

ELIZABETH

There it is.

CATHERINE

What?

ELIZABETH

The Benincasa compassion.