Captain Arcadia, last part of episode 1

(Cut to the dining room of Palazzo Foscari. A Counsellor, Angelo Foscaro, the English exiles and Sidney are sitting at ease upon several divans.)

COUNSELLOR: Well, you boys must have a lot to talk about from England; I shall bid you good evening. (He stands, smiling, and withdraws.)

WINDSOR: At last. I thought the old bore would never shut up about his panettone. So, Philip, when did you last receive word from your father?

SIDNEY: Over…three months ago. Nor was it news of the kind to bring me any happiness.

SHELLEY: Really, Master Sidney? But we hear that the country is quiet at last, with no small thanks to your father’s policy.

SIDNEY: It is not his policy that causes trouble; the Desmonds have been peaceful, the wild Irish are calm…but…

SHELLEY: The English lords in the pale?

(A silence falls.)

They still will not pay their taxes to the Lord Deputy, your father?

SIDNEY: They refuse him a penny, Sir Richard, and he cannot long pay his soldiers out of his own pocket. We Sidneys have never relied overmuch on riches.

WINDSOR: And never been too rich either, eh? I know the feeling. If you knew the tune of my obligations… (He starts laughing in a slightly forced manner.)

SHELLEY: Cut to the chase, my lord Windsor; lay our proposition before Master Sidney.

WINDSOR: Philip…

…how would you like to see your father wear a golden crown?

(Pause. Close up on Sidney’s face.)

SIDNEY: Go on…

(Cut to the corridor at the Palazzo Foscari’s entrance. Two servants are in reach of the door when it is rapped on heavily.)

SERVANT 1: Alright, alright! Relax! Who are you making such a racket?

MARLOWE: (offstage) Harlequins, harlequins for Councillor Foscaro! We claim the right of the Carnivale! If your master is a nobleman and not a miser, you will let us in…

SERVANT 1: Very well, calm down. (To his fellow servant) Fetch Giustiniano and the other guards, in case there’s any larceny. We don’t want funny business in front of the English visitors.

SERVANT 2: Understood. (He exits.)

(Servant 1 opens the door and is immediately knocked unconscious by a blackjack. Brief cut to Marlowe’s triumphant, grinning Harlequin painted face.)

(Back to the English gentlemen in the dining-room.)

SIDNEY: So, if I understand you – you want me to advance your expenses, and then…

SHELLEY: Then the Sidneys will be Kings of Ireland.

WINDSOR: The money will be invested in a galley of expert adventurers, lying at anchor now in Venice. We will carry soldiers and munitions, and communicate with the honoured Deputy, your father, immediately upon landing. The wild Irish are ready to muster, and the mean-spirited English lords shall pay…

SIDNEY: With death?

WINDSOR: I don’t see why not.

SHELLEY: Most certainly.

SIDNEY: (narrowing his eyes, looking at them sidelong) Who will be first to the scaffold…my friends?

(The other two start laughing.)

SHELLEY: Well, that’s easy.

WINDSOR: The principal rogue must go down, of course.

SHELLEY: That heretic scoundrel…

WINDSOR AND SHELLEY: The Earl of Essex!

(Sidney nods with apparent lack of concern. There is a wild female shriek behind the curtains, which startles all three men, and a crash as a woman sags to the floor. First to recover his presence of mind in the confusion, Sidney draws his sword and seizes the back of Shelley’s neck, holding the blade to his throat.)

SIDNEY: Sir Richard Shelley, you are an honourless, spendthrift, forsworn, degenerate traitor, and I will see you dead before I allow you to defame Penelope’s father!

(Windsor snarls and draws, aiming for Sidney’s undefended side. There is another stirring in the curtains and Greville, still attired as a Harlequin, puts a dagger through his leg.)

GREVILLE: Not so fast, my lord.

(Windsor collapses. The recumbent female form, the powdered and masked Penelope, rises up from her faint, lifting her vizard…)

STELLA: Master Sidney. You are a far better man than I took you for. I truly thought you would let them arrange my father’s murder.

SIDNEY: (coldly) Then, Lady Penelope, you understand…nothing…of me.

(In his intense concentration upon her he has neglected to keep a secure hold on Shelley, who draws a dagger with a free hand and spins it towards Sidney’s back. Marlowe now emerges, making use of his slight, short frame to whack a fist into Shelley’s groin. Shelley falls back groaning atrociously.)

MARLOWE: Old Deptford trick. Were you wanting to see the Carnival, Master Sidney, or shall we be going, this time?

SIDNEY: I don’t know you from Satan, little man. What are you, some kind of poet?

MARLOWE: Takes one to know one.

(Cut to the central dungeon in the Doge’s Prison. Norton is chained to a stone chair. Watching him are two ranks of robed, hatted Counsellors, led by their Doge, Alvise Mocenigo. Among the Counsellors are Shelley and, leaning on a crutch and bandaged, Windsor.)

FIRST COUNSELLOR: This man was detained after Master Sidney’s flight with these…harlequins. Under…examination…

(Close view of Norton, who is sweating and weeping, looking weak, drawn.)

…he revealed his name as Norton.

(Among the Counsellors a flash of red in the darkness leads us to the Cardinal, who raises an eyebrow.)

SHELLEY: That is young Sidney’s manservant.

WINDSOR: Yes. A fellow of no account. You might as well let him go free, if you cannot catch the others.

SECOND COUNSELLOR: I think not, my lord Windsor. Signor cardinale, explain the situation.

(The Cardinal stands.)

CARDINAL: I understand Venice intends to maintain its good relations with the Holy See?

(There is some murmuring, but an emphatic nod from the Doge.)

CARDINAL: Then give me the servant. He is in my debt by the value of two thousand ducats.

(Brief discussion among the Counsellors.)

DOGE: Of course. Here in Venice, we take debts very seriously.

(Close up on Shelley and Windsor. They look at each other uncomfortably. Hands are laid on their shoulders.)

FIRST COUNSELLOR: (shouting) The twenty thousand ducats! Where are they?

WINDSOR: Signor Contarini…

SHELLEY: They are, invested in…

DOGE: They are invested in my prisons, and I shall send you there to collect their dividends.

(Laughter as the English Catholics are chained and led off, and Norton, still fettered, marched off with the Cardinal and his guards.)

End of episode