Captain Arcadia Ep 1 Part 2

Rotterdam, some months later

(A bustling and mercantile thoroughfare, through which an old man in a long, black, fur-lined gown and a faintly disdainful looking, fashionably dressed young nobleman are winding their way.)

ERASMUS: Is my fair city less than to your liking, Mr Greville?

GREVILLE: The clouds upon my thoughts are glum enough already without being augmented by the…stench of moneychangers.

ERASMUS: You are a young man of uncompromising disposition, I see. What is that worries you so? The grave state of decrepitude in which modern learning self-evidently finds herself?

GREVILLE: My troubles are of a personal nature, Erasmus.

ERASMUS: Aha! A love affair.

GREVILLE: No, no. If you must know, it’s about my friend Philip Sidney…

ERASMUS: Ah yes, I remember him, a most accomplished and promising young gentleman. A scholar of Oxford, Christ Church, I believe? Is his mother not one of the Count of Leicester’s sisters?

GREVILLE: The point is, for months he’s been missing, no sign of him anywhere, and I received disturbing word from…well, from an unreliable source, but…

(Loud commotion and shouts of “Thief, thief!” A nearby stall is in utter commotion. A pale young man dressed in black, wearing a flashy opal ring, is trying to extricate himself from a particularly angry knot of people with a red faced burgher at its centre.)

MARLOWE: I hold a commission from, from, the con- con- sistory court at Rh-Rh-Rheims, I am a, a theological scholar, a scholar and a…

BURGHER: A red-handed thief! That’s my best opal, you degenerate, on order to the Duchess of Brabant, went missing four days back…

GREVILLE: What an extraordinary chance. That’s him, Erasmus, the man who said he might have bad news about Philip.

ERASMUS: Allow me to sort out this unfortunate situation. My good man, (he lays a restraining hand on the angry burgher’s shoulder) you have perhaps heard of my repute. I am Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam…

(The burgher punches Erasmus in the face and the sage falls over. Marlowe has gripped hold of Greville.)

MARLOWE: Ey, the old man’ll be just fine. Scram now, and we’ll talk about your friend. I know a nice safe ‘stablishment. Come on.

(They bolt away down an alley.)

(The camera follows them bolting down many side streets. At some point they rush past a shabbily dressed man in a wide-brimmed hat. He raises his head to look at them; it is Norton. He watches them pass, then sets off back the way he had come. Cut to an Unsavoury Boarding House, Marlowe and Greville entering.)

MARLOWE: (to landlady) Good day, Frau Geritzoon. I’ve brought a friend.

LANDLADY: He looks a better class than your usual run of dodgy Jesuits and thievin’ rentboys, Kit.

MARLOWE: I’m sure he appreciates the compliment, Frau Geritzoon. Now if I were you I’d get right down to the jewellers on Wilhelmstrasse.

LANDLADY: What you nattering about? I don’t need bawbies at my age.

MARLOWE: Mm, well, I think you’ll find yer man Desiderius in a bit of a fix.

LANDLADY: What? Dezzy’s got ‘imself in trouble again? Well, Kit Marlowe, I’m moving but if I find you’re at the bottom of this one… (She bustles out.)

GREVILLE: (astonished) ‘Dezzy’? Frau Geritzoon? That woman...Erasmus…

MARLOWE: Has been secretly married for decades, yeah. Now, Master Greville, just where were we?

GREVILLE: You’re the one who should be answering questions, you depraved little fop. You leant over to me back in the tavern, muttered “Sidney” and put your thumbs down. Are you saying it’s all up with Philip, and what is your information, exactly?

MARLOWE: (off hand) Jus’ this.

(He moves to a corner of the room with a battered travelling chest in it and kicks the unlocked trunk open, Greville craning after him.)

Don’ stand there lordling, light a taper.

GREVILLE: Show some damned respect.

MARLOWE: Do as I say.

(GREVILLE, white and sweaty with anger and trepidation, does indeed light a taper as Marlowe picks up a large object from the box. It comes under the light – a mud-splattered, once elegant saddle, with a coat of arms on it.)

GREVILLE: Christ save me! The Penshurst arms, Sidney’s blazon!

MARLOWE: Picked up the corpse of a horse fortnight back. Picked it up for a pound. Wouldn’t mind some remuner…

GREVILLE: Like hell it was a pound, you slimy bastard.

(He is very angry and pins Marlowe in a grip against the wall, letting the taper go fall. We see an unknown boot come down on it.)

OFFSTAGE HUSKILY FEMALE VOICE: Steady, boys. You could start a fire like that.

(Flash to the newcomer. Dressed in young man’s garments with a wide-brimmed riding hat exactly like the one Norton was wearing earlier is a tall, pale, light haired young woman with dark dark eyes and the evident lineaments of incredibly fabulous breasts. Penelope Deveureux – Stella – has arrived.)