Arrows of Longing

By August Franza

I love the great despisers for they are the great adorers
and arrows of longing for the other shore.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493183685

August Franza

August Franza has published 27 novels and is planning to make them an even 30.

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by August Franza.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Rev. date: 03/21/2014

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I love the great despisers for they are the great adorers and arrows of longing for the other shore.

Friedrich Nietzsche

CONTENTS

SPHINX: a film script about Charles Darwin

THE INK COOLIE: a play about Stephane Mallarmé

KARL, THE MOOR OF SOHO:

a musical play about Karl Marx

BEHOLD THE MAN:

a film script about Friedrich Nietzsche

MUST A SONG ALWAYS BE A SONG?

a play about Charles Ives

SPHINX

A Filmscript About Charles Darwin

CAST

(As of June 30, 1860)

Scene 1

Opening shot of Oxford University, followed by super-imposition of scene, setting, date:

JUNE 30, I860

OXFORD UNIVEBSITY, ENGLAND

THE DEBATE ON DARWINISM

Fade-in to a long shot of Assembly Hall of the University Museum filling with more than 700 spectators. Ladies are in bright summer dresses; they carry fluttering handkerchiefs to ward off the heat. The men are in more formal darker clothes. It is clear from the incoming crowd that there will soon be standing room only. The clergy seats itself in the center section. They are here en masse. The Oxford Undergraduates are behind them, waiting to cheer science on.

Camera cuts to the entrance of the library where it catches audience streaming in with high anticipation: men, women, faculty, students, foreign observers—everyone with an opinion. As they pass on either side of the camera, the sound track picks up snatches and pieces of their conversations:

Spectator 1

. . . and he’ll be saying next that worms are our cousins!

Spectator 2

Alfred, don’t even say a thing like that in jest! I…

Spectator 3

. . . he is convulsing society…

Spectator 4

Just wait til Wilberforce gets to him!

Spectator 5

. . . he must be an evil man to…

Spectator 6

Come to think of it, Avery, you do look like an ape

Spectator 7

. . . You watch. It’s all a hoax.

Spectator 8

Wilberforce says he’ll smash Darwin…

Spectator 9

. . . get up close… down in front… don’t want to miss a word of this…

Spectator 10

. . . Huxley is supposed to defend him…

Spectator 11

Why can’t he defend himself? He’s caused all the trouble.

Spectator 12

. . . He never appears in public…

Spectator 13

Does he have a family?

Spectator 14

No, he lives in a tree.

Spectator 13

And has a worm’s-eye view, I’ll wager…

Spectator 15

Have you read The origin of Species, Madame?

Spectator 16

I wouldn’t think of it!

Spectator 15

Come on, Cecil, he’s a genius and you know it.

Spectator 16

You mean a congenital idiot! An outrageous…

Spectator 17

What can be in the man’s mind?

Spectator 18

I don’t know, but imagine being married to him?

Spectator 19

I can’t bear to think of it.

Spectator 20

. . . a perfectly godless man…

Spectator 21

. . . much too early an hour for me…

Spectator 22

No one sees Mr. Darwin. He’s in ill health.

Spectator 23

Well, I should hope so…

Spectator 24

There’s Huxley, there! The man with the sour look on his face.

Spectator 25

That’s scientific detachment, silly.

Spectator 26

Uncle Harry knew Darwin at school; says he was a bore.

Spectator 27

Now he’s thrown a bolt…

Spectator 28

. . . he lives in the country, not far from London…

Spectator 29

Up a tree, I’ll bet.

Spectator 30

Admiral Fitzroy, what a pleasure seeing you! Some turn of events, isn’t it?

Admiral Fitzroy

Could I ever imagine in my wildest imagination that that young pious naturalist who kept throwing up all over my Beagle would assault us all like this? Is the beast here, Dr. Lewis?

Dr. Lewis

I hear he’s ill.

Fitzroy

Ill? Then he’s changed. He had the constitution of a bull once he got used to it. On land none of us could keep up with him.

Dr. Lewis

That was 25 years ago, wasn’t it?

Fitzroy

It was; I wonder what’s happened to him, the Devil take him! (He waves a Bible.) He has sounded the death knell of morality!

(A student dressed in an ape’s costume appears, goaded on by his friends. A lady screams and some guards push the ape out of the auditorium.)

Student

But, sir, he’s the guest of honor; the… er… ape of the hour.

Spectator 31

I see no conflict with the Bible. Man is a worm, is he not?

Spectator 32

I never thought I’d see scientists leading a discussion at Oxford.

Spectator 33

What’s Huxley doing here? He doesn’t approve of the Middle Ages.

Spectator 32

This place reeks of heresy already.

Spectator 33

Let’s not miss a reek!

Spectator 34

Is man a monkey, my dear?

Spectator 35

. . . even better than yesterday’s session. Owen refuted Darwin beautifully.

Spectator 36

What must there be in his mind to say the things he does? Where is his… humanity… his fellow feeling?

Spectator 37

You’re right. He’s hurting our exclusive club rights.

Spectator 38

An American poet said it: The play is the tragedy ‘Man’ and its hero the conqueror Worm.

*

Scene 2

(Cut to the drawing room of Down House, Darwin’s home.

Even though it is morning, the room is darkened by a drawn curtain. Darwin is sleeping on a couch, fully dressed.

He has been suffering from a headache for two days, his spirits have been low and depressed. His face has a grim expression on it and his lips are drawn tight. The camera slowly zooms in on Darwin’s restless face which it explores: the prominent forehead, the bald head, the whiskers, the overhanging brow, tight lips and sourish expression. When his eyes are open, they are blue-grey, gentle and sensitive and in deep contrast with the rest of his looks. But now they are closed in sleep. Darwin dreams.

A voice in his dream is heard. The voice is laughing sardonically. Then a picture of a man emerges—a man being hanged. A hostile crowd watches the hanging. Darwin is the victim, but he is laughing. The trap is sprung, he drops, but his laughter continues and he does not die. Safe, with the rope around his neck, he jokes.)

Darwin

I’ve stood my ground. I could have run, but I can face it. I can stand it.

(The crowd still roars approval, but when Darwin appears alive, the crowd grows enraged.)

Darwin

Thought is just a secretion of the brain. Why is it more wonderful than gravity, which is a property of matter? It is our arrogance… our admiration of ourselves. You expected me to run away. (Laughs)

(A tall bloated figure confronts him suddenly. He holds the rope around Darwin’s neck. His body fills the screen, but his face is not distinguishable.)

Figure

You care for nothing… (voice fades away) . . . You will be a disgraceful… (voice fades out)

(He pulls the rope tighter around Darwin’s neck, but Darwin continues to laugh. The crowd gets more hostile. Darwin falls through the trap door again. Now he wakes with a start, sits up on the couch, grasps his head in his hands.)

Darwin

(Putting his shawl around his shoulders. He rises to his six feet 4 height, and walks with his usual slight stoop to a desk, sits and writes the dream in his notebook.) My, my, my. That’s worth recording. (Writes, then calls out.) Emma! E-Emma! E-Emma d-d-dear, o-c-come here, w-will you?

(A stammer is obvious in Darwin’s speech, most noticeably in pronouncing ‘r’s’ and ‘w’s’. The reader will have to keep this in mind since I have decided not to print Darwin’s lines to show his stammering because of the inconvenience it would cause the reader. But Darwin’s speech problem must be kept in mind and incorporated into the spoken lines.)

*

Scene 3

(Cut to a man and woman at the entrance to the hall. They read a hastily erected sign:

BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE

ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

SATURDAY SESSION AT 10 AM

(He is Fred Engels, Karl Marx’s collaborator. He is a handsome, outgoing businessman of forty, always deeply curious about the latest intellectual currents. Bearded and fashionably dressed, he speaks with a German accent.

His companion is Mary Burns, his Irish mistress that he met in Manchester when he first arrived there in 1850.)

Fred Engels

He’ll be sorry he missed this.

Mary Burns

He’s silly not to come if you know it’ll be so important.

Fred

Do you think Karl Marx would listen to the boorish Bishop of oxford? He wouldn’t be able to sit still for one minute.

Mary

Doesn’t he think this Huxley can defend Darwin?

Fred

Oh, no. Professor Huxley is always a gentleman. All Englishmen are gentlemen. They drive Karl to distraction with their polite manners. (They enter the Assembly Hall as the others have done and join the crush of spectators.) Let’s just make sure we don’t miss a word of this because he’ll want to know everything that’s said. He’ll have a hundred questions to which he will expect 100 exact answers. (The camera follows them as they rush to get seats, two along the side aisle.) Do you know who’s up there, Mary? (He points to the dais.)

Mary

They look British to me: swindlers and hypocrites.

Fred

England’s scientific community. I’m surprised these Medieval walls are still standing. This whole audience must be praying that Wilberforce will destroy Darwin here and now and put an end to science and the 19th century! Oh, Karl, what you’re missing.

Mary

Does he have to go to the British Museum every day? What kind of a revolutionary is that?

(Cut to the clergymen sitting in the center. They begin a chant for Bishop Wilberforce.)

Clergymen

Wilberforce! Wilberforce! Wilberforce!

Undergraduates

(Behind them) Darwin! Darwin! Darwin!

Fred

If he’s going to finish the book, he needs the research. I understand Darwin worked on Origin of Species for twenty years.

(Close-up of several undergraduates mimicking apes. Cut to the student in the ape’s costume rushing down the aisle, having escaped from his guards. He chatters and screeches, frightening two solemn clergymen and their wives. Others are irate. At one point, he comes face to face with a chubby, smooth-faced undergraduate and they study one another, nose to nose.)

Clergymen

Wilberforce! Wilberforce!

Audience

(Cut to long shot) Wilberforce! Wilberforce!

(Cut to hands of guards coming down on ape’s shoulders and dragging him out of the hall to cheers mixed with taunts and jeers. The ape snarls.)

A distressed clergyman

Oh, Oxford, that thou shouldst witness such a spectacle!

*

Scene 4

(Cut to Darwin sitting in his favorite horsehair chair, a disconsolate expression on his face, his shawl wrapped around him. The drawing room is brighter now, and he stares out of French doors onto his lawn, gardens, his tremendous leafy acreage. He is moodily reflective. As the camera closes in on him, shouts of Wilberforce! Wilberforce! are heard. They stop and he begins recalling a scene from his youth which took place in his father’s house, The Mount.

(Cut to a camera tracking quickly down a dark hallway to confront the looming figure of Darwin’s older sister, Caroline. She stands in his way, arms akimbo. She is ready to scold him. She looks imperial.)

Caroline

(Threateningly) Are you at it again?

Charles

(A boy of eight, his face a mask of unresponsiveness. He conceals something behind his back.) W-w-w-what?

Caroline

(Mimicking his stutter) W-w-w-well, what have you got there, you little worm? What are you up to now, (She giggles.) Say Water in the Wishing Well five times and I won’t tell The Tide when he comes home.

(Charles stands his ground, says nothing.)

Catherine and I will tell him what a beast you’ve been. What have you stolen today? Who have you lied to? What helpless creature have you caught and killed?

Charles

I haven’t done anything.

Caroline

Then what have you got behind your back? Give it to me. The Tide shall see it. (Charles draws away.) Do as I say. (She approaches him. He stops and stands his ground. Caroline grasps his shoulder and shakes it.) Show it to me now!

(As the camera closes in on Charles, he reveals what he has been concealing behind his back. He thrusts it into his sister’s face. It is the bloody and torn carcass of a rabbit he has shot. {Caroline backs off screaming.) You worm! You little worm! Wait til I tell The Tide. There is definitely something wrong with you, do you know that? Catherine! Catherine! (Cut to Charles’ stolid looks.)

*

Scene 5

(Cut to the Oxford debate. Fred Engels is identifying the eminent men on the dais to Mary. The camera is panning and capturing each one as Engels identifies him.)

Engels

The man with the glasses and the whiskers on the left is Joseph Hooker, Darwin’s friend and supporter. He’s a biologist. Next to him is Richard Owen, an anti-Darwinist, a scientist, too. He supports Wilberforce.

I don’t know the man next to Owen. And next is Bishop Wilberforce, the smug looking one. He’s the reason why this hall is so crowded today. They live to hear Soapy Sam’s histrionics. He’s a fraud and as superficial as any man can be, but he can draw them. Imagine him and Karl in a debate! (Laughs)

Mary

Why do they call him Soapy Sam?

Engels

He’s all froth. He has all this dramatic flair and empty rhetoric. And he’s backward, so they’ll love him… . Next to Wilberforce is Professor Henslow, the Chairman of this session. He started all of this. It was his recommendation that got Darwin the job of naturalist on board the Beagle. The next man is the American guest and then comes Huxley. That’s Thomas Henry Huxley. Karl is interested in his work, although he criticizes him for his religious scruples. We don’t have much hope for the English. They’re too self-conscious and worried about appearances.

Mary

He could never hate them the way I do… Why does Huxley have to defend Darwin? Why can’t he defend himself?

Engels

I hear he’s ill… and not at all a public speaker.

(Professor Henslow raps the gavel many times.)

Henslow

(Camera cuts from Henslow to audience.) Ladies and gentlemen, my introductory remarks will be brief, but that is not to imply that they should be overlooked. Because of the extraordinary interest of this subject, I must offer a few words of caution to one and all assembled here. Please bear with us, since we are beyond capacity seating and have been moved once already… We are assembled here today to hear our American guest, Dr. Draper of New York, talk about The Intellectual Development of Europe Considered With Reference to the Views of Mr. Darwin. . . . Before I introduce Dr. Draper, I must apprise you at the outset that only prepared speakers will be permitted to respond to him. We are here today to hear valid arguments, not vague opinions or indulgent declamations. I trust this is all that need be said on the matter. This is a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and not an undergraduate class in sophistic philosophy.

Voice in audience

Wilberforce will change all that. (General laughter)

Undergraduates

Soapy Sam! Soapy Sam! Soapy Sam!

Henslow

(Waiting patiently until it subsides.)

I trust we have heard the last of this levity and I may now introduce our speaker, Dr. Draper. (Cut to Dr. Draper at the podium, a tall, somewhat seedy, Lincolnesque man. A straightforward looking, plain American, instantly identifiable as non-English. His Pennsylvania twang is strong right beneath his educated speech.)

Dr. Draper

Dr. Henslow, distinguished members of the panel, ladies and gentlemen, I feel honored to be asked to address the British Association for the Advancement of Science on a subject of such importance. Even though The Origin of Species was published a mere seven months ago, it has absorbed Europe as it has the English and its revolutionary ideas have radically challenged…

*

Scene 6

(Cut to Darwin’s bathroom and the sounds of vomiting. The camera catches him bent over the bowl retching. When he finishes, he rises, looks at his face in the mirror. He looks ghastly, pained, pale, worn out. He grimaces, makes contorted faces. Following this, he picks up a pencil and writes in a notebook he has brought with him to the bathroom. Then, as he feels another spasm of vomiting coming on, he grips his pencil firmly and prepares to get this down on paper. (Cut to Emma Darwin rushing into the bathroom with a bottle of medicine at the ready. She is a bustling mother and wife to an ill husband. She bears her role well, but her face is careworn, and there is a tightening of the lips and around the mouth. While her eyes are gentle, she wears a grave expression after 21 years of marriage, the birth of ten children, and the tending to her sickly husband. Darwin’s brother has referred to Down House as ‘Down-at-the-Mouth’ because of the family’s pre-eminent concern with illness.

Emma

Charles, I have the medicine Dr. Gully prescribed.

Charles

(Waving her away. His voice is hoarse from vomiting.) Go inside, Emma. You don’t have to put up with this.

Emma

Oh, don’t be silly, Charles. (She approaches him.) Come, let me help you, my poor dear. Let me at least wipe your brow.

Charles

(Rising from the bowl, making some notes.) I think it’s over now. That was a rather brutal attack. I have some good notes, I think.

Emma

(Opening the bottle) Do you think you can keep this down. Dr. Gully says it will quiet your stomach.

Charles

I’m afraid nothing will quiet my stomach, Emma dear. I have constitutional nausea. (He takes a spoonful obediently.)

Emma

Are you still trembling? Do you still have that swimming in your head?

Charles

It’s diminished a little.

Emma

Do you think you should lie down again?

Charles

I think I should.

Emma

Yes, rest and be quiet. I’ll keep the children away. (She watches him shiver.) Pull your shawl around you securely. Maybe you should, get into bed.

Charles

I’d rather not, Emma. I get a little tired of bed. And it’s such a beautiful day.

Emma

Well, don’t chill yourself.

Charles

No. I’ll just rest in the study, and stay quiet. I don’t feel so giddy now.

Emma

Do you want me to read to you?

Charles

Maybe a little later, dear. I had a dreadful dream before. Very strange and yet I was laughing, and I wasn’t supposed to, I don’t think… . Peculiar. Tell the children I miss them… . and I would like to take my walk.

Emma

Oh, Charles, not the way you’re feeling.

Charles

In the afternoon. I always feel so calm in The Sandwalk. I think if I feel better in a while I should take the water treatment. Will you tell Albert to be ready?

Emma

Will you be up to it?

Charles

I hope to be.

Emma

Maybe we should have Doctor Bence-Jones in again?

Charles

No. no. You’re my best doctor, Emma. (They exchange benevolent looks.)

(Suddenly a booming sound rends the quiet and intrudes upon their medical conversation.)

Emma

Oh, I almost forgot. (The boom is repeated, louder, softer, longer, shorter.) Francis is in the study with a Basson. Shall I send him away til another time?

Charles

Oh, dear, no. Good old Francis. I don’t want to disappoint him. He did remember his father’s wish.

Emma

He was ready yesterday, too, but he knew you were too ill.

Charles

I have such thoughtful children.

Emma

When you are out of sorts, Charles, the whole household gets upset. John says the flowers are lonely without you, the squirrels never stop chattering and the Drosera won’t eat.

Charles

How nice.

Emma

And I pray for your recovery.

Charles

Oh, Emma, what would I do without you? I don’t know what came over me this time, I am such a burden to you.

Emma

Never, Charles. (Pause) Maybe you’re a little worried for Mr. Huxley?

Charles

Oh, no. I think Mr. Huxley will do all right for himself.

Emma

People have been so upset by your book.

Charles

I don’t know why such interest has been shown a scientific work.

Emma

Maybe people misunderstand.

Charles

Even if they make a shambles of my book today and it’s forgotten in two months’ time, I know the subject will not be. And no matter what happens, Mr. Huxley has a brilliant career ahead of him, (The Basson sounds again.) I’ll rest later, Emma. Go tell Francis to wait until I come in, otherwise he’ll scare them and then heaven knows when there they’ll come out again.

*

Scene 7

(Cut to drawing room. In the foreground of the first shot are two pots of earth sitting on a piano. Beyond this, 12 year old Francis Darwin is sitting in the middle of the room with his basson wrapped around him. Emma enters.)

Emma

Francis, dear, wait for your father. He’s coming. He doesn’t want you to scare them.

Francis

You have to play the piano, too, mother.

Emma

I will. Will they like Mozart, do you think? (Charles enters in his shawl, with his notebook.)

Charles

Good morning, Francis.

Francis

Good morning, father. How are you feeling?

Charles

A little better now, but not too well a while ago. (He walks over to the piano and inspects the pots.) How are my useful little friends, today? Not too excitable today, are you?

Francis

The worm-stone has sunk a little more, Father.

Charles

I’m sure it has, Francis, but I want the exact measurements when you go out later. We must be precise.

Francis

Will the stone disappear?

Charles

Eventually it will. Just because they are weak and small and blind doesn’t mean they can’t perform stupendous feats. Worms understand the secret of time.

Are you ready to play, now?

Francis

Yes, Father.

Charles

Emma, will you sit at the piano and be ready to strike the bass chords when I give you the word? (Emma goes to the piano. Charles inspects the pots, makes notes in his book, and then, after some deliberation, gives Francis the signal to play. Francis releases a booming note, then another, and another. He goes up and down the scale, and finally, plays a piece of ‘Rule, Britannia’. He signals Francis to stop. Writes in his notebook.) They haven’t stirred. Not one bit. All right, Emma, now strike the chords and keep it up for a few seconds.

(Emma plays some chords, louder and louder, and then launches into a piece of Mozart. Charles watches.) Now, Francis, what conclusions are we going to draw? The worms are retreating into their burrows but didn’t stir when you played the Basson.

Francis

That worms can’t hear?

Charles

Let us make that statement declarative. And what else?

Francis

They react to vibrations.

Charles

Good boy! Remember that they took no note when I blew that metal whistle, they were indifferent to shouts, and even a big Basson. But any vibrations are another matter.

Francis

Remember when we stamped around outside?

Charles

And now we have our evidence, don’t we?

*

Scene 8

(Cut to Assembly Hall. Dr. Draper is concluding his remarks, is very long-winded and the audience is hot and restless. Then close-ups of Fred Engels and Mary Burns.)

Engels

He’s perceptive, but this audience wants blood, not perception. It senses the meaning and implication of Darwin and it wants to slap him down for his originality, for his freedom.

Mary

He is a windy man.

Engels

I’ve always been told Americans are reticent.

Mary

How many more speakers are there?

Engels

Three before the Bishop.

Mary

I don’t think they’ll make it to the podium.

Engels

But Draper is correct, you know. Darwin has smashed religion, that is the long and the short of it.

And he is not going to be forgiven so easily. Draper will intellectualize around that theme to soften the blow, but these people here already feel what has happened. It had to come and now more will come. Karl’s book will deepen the assault and soon you will have to defend yourself against unreason to be religious. (Dr. Draper concluded, the audience applauds halfheartedly, and then begins chanting for Wilberforce again.)

Clergy

Wilberforce! Wilberforce!

Undergraduates

Darwin! Huxley! Darwin! Huxley!

Henslow

(Rapping his gavel.) Thank you, Dr. Draper, Ladies and Gentlemen, you are holding us up. There are other speakers.

Clergy

Wilberforce! Wilberforce!

(The ape, having escaped once more, parades up and down the aisles, beating its chest and chattering.

Cut to dais and a quick meeting between Henslow and those near him. Close-up of conversation as the shouts grow more demanding.)

Henslow

They’ll never stand for three more speakers. I’ll reduce it to one and then we’ll recess for luncheon. Maybe we’ll have a quieter audience this afternoon. (He raps gavel for order, and as he does so, the camera pans over to Bishop Wilberforce’s smug expression then to Huxley’s which is a mixture of grim patience and anxiety.)

(Cut to ape beating its chest, then cut to

*

Scene 9

(Darwin resting in his study, his shawl wrapped around him. He is not dreaming but in a kind of state of free association in memory. He is recalling his father. Dr. Robert Darwin, all thunderous 340 pounds of him in 6'2 of height, is arriving home in his usual manner. He walks in a quick-stepping heap and sweeps into the house. This is why he is known to his daughters at The Tide".)

Dr. Darwin

All right. All right. Good evening, Caroline. And how are all the Darwins today? Well-behaved I trust. I’m not only exhausted, but I must be out by seven again. Can’t be helped. I’ve another marriage to save under the guise of medical advice. (He yells.) Edward! I want my dinner. And everybody else’s! (To Caroline) Will you call Catherine, Erasmus, and Charles? We’ll have dinner now.

Caroline

Yes, Father, But Ras is at Uncle Jos’, and Charles has been a bad boy again.

Dr. Darwin

Again?

Caroline

All day long.

Dr. Darwin

After my warnings?

Caroline

He’s lied again, scared Catherine with a rat…

Dr. Darwin

What’s the matter with that boy?

Caroline

He shot a rabbit and threw it in my face…

Dr. Darwin

I’11 speak to him at dinner…

Caroline

. . . He brings his ugly bugs into the house and tortures them.

Dr. Darwin

That’s not torturing, Caroline. At least, let’s get that straight. He’s collecting. It’s a new kind of hobby.

Caroline

Oh, Father, He’s beastly the way he enjoys pinning insects to his board… And Catherine saw him beating the puppy half to death…

Dr. Darwin

This will never do! What am I going to do with that boy? What’s this Darwin going to come to? (He gives a thunderous yell.) CHARLES! CHARLES! (No response.) CHARLES, I say! I want to see you!

*

Scene 9a

(Cut to Charles’ room where he works silently at his collection. Close-up of his dull, care-worn face. His father’s bellowing reaches him, but he ignores it. The camera cuts to him hand piercing a live beetle with a pin and placing it on his collection board. Then he leaves it to go to his father, but the camera remains on the beetle as life twitches slowly out of it. Dr. Darwin’s booming voice is heard again.)

Dr. Darwin’s voice

CHARLES!

*

Scene 9b

(Cut to the dining room at The Mount. All are seated: Dr. Darwin, Caroline, Catherine, and Charles. A servant feeds them. Dr. Darwin’s portions of food are enormous and he feeds easily and fully while he performs his nightly monologue of advice, threat, and instruction. As the children are mentioned, they are shown close-up. Caroline and Catherine act deferentially and dutifully, but also seem to be enjoying a private joke only they and the audience observe. Charles’ face conveys his usual dogged expression, a mask of concealment. His head is bent over his meal, but he is barely eating.)

Dr. Darwin

. . . . and so when Mrs. Robertson demands medicine, she gets medicine, but what she really needs is a husband who drinks less and is home more… (he shrugs). But medicine is so much simpler. (He taps his head.) The mind… the mind… that’s where the medicine is needed. Attend to the mind and the body will follow. But if my patients followed my advice, I’d lose my practice… Now Charles, I have another report from your sisters that you have been misbehaving again. (Cut to Charles’ bowed head.) Are you listening? (Charles nods.) Well, what have you got to say for yourself? Are you getting impossible again? Poor schoolwork, unruliness, violence against weaker creatures… I hear none of this about Ras, but you, Mr. Fly-catcher! What are we going to do with you? What would your mother say if she knew? You care for nothing but shooting dogs and rat-catching, and you will be a disgrace to yourself and your family!

*

Scene 9c

(Cut to Charles at the age of three in a nurse’s arms staring at an empty bedroom, his mother’s. He notices a hanging dress, an empty bed, an empty chair. The nurse brings him to a window. They look out and see a funeral procession moving down the road.)

*

Dr. Darwin’s voice

YOU CARE FOR NOTHING BUT SHOOTING DOGS AND RAT-CATCHING. AND YOU WILL BE A DISGRACE TO YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY!

*

Scene 9d

(Cut back to present: Charles Darwin resting in his study. He opens his eyes as he hears footsteps. Albert, his valet, approaches him.)

Albert

Mr. Darwin, sir. Everything is ready when you are.

*

Scene 9e

All good and ready.

Charles

Oh, thank you, Albert, I’ll be right there. What time is it, now? (Albert goes to inspect a clock in the darkened room. As he leans over to read the hands…

*

Scene 10

(Cut to Assembly Hall and close-up of Fred Engels’ pocket watch)

Engels

Ten minutes to twelve.

(Cut to audience applauding the speaker weakly. Undergraduate feet begin stomping and hands begin clapping.)

Undergraduates

Huxley! Huxley! Darwin! Darwin!

Clergy

Wilberforce! Wilberforce! Wilberforce!

Henslow

(Rapping the gavel persistently.) Ladies and gentlemen, it is very near noon and you are in bad enough humor now. Going without luncheon will not improve things at all, I’m sure, so I am announcing a recess. (Audience boos vigorously.) We will reassemble at one for Dr. Wilberforce and Prof. Huxley. And let me address the guards. I don’t want to see that ape-like creature in this room again!

Scene 11

(Darwin’s bedroom. Charles, with outstretched arms stands nude in front of the camera. There is a look on his face as if he expects something to happen. Suddenly, a sopping wet white sheet is thrown around his body and, with Albert’s assistance, envelops his body from neck to feet. Darwin whimpers as the sheet touches his body. As soon as he is enveloped, he begins rubbing the front of his body vigorously. Albert does the same at his back and buttocks.)

Charles

That’s hot, Albert.

Albert

(Apologetically) You said hot, sir.

Charles

I did. I did. But it’s always a bit of a shock.

Albert

Not as uncomfortable as the cold douche, though.

Charles

Oh, don’t remind me.

(Both men rub strenuously as the camera dollies away to see Darwin standing in a large tub to capture the water from the dripping sheet.) Rub, rub, rub, eh, Albert?

Albert

(Rubbing energetically) Yes sir. Rub, rub, rub. Those are Dr. Gulley’s words. Guaranteed to relax you.

Charles

Let us hope so,

(Cut to the dripping sheet being ripped from Darwin and replaced with a flannel blanket, then another and another. Albert wraps then around Darwin tightly, then pushes a couch behind him and helps Darwin lie down. Making him comfortable, he applies a wet napkin to his head. He is swaddled in flannel and looks like a cross between a large child and a mummy.)

Albert

Now for a good sweat, sir.

Charles

Yes, a good sweat.

Albert

Are you feeling more relaxed?

Charles

The nausea is gone, but I still feel giddy.

Albert

You should begin the exercises, and the breathing, (Darwin begins to move his legs and his body in a series of undulations. He also breathes deeply and regularly. After a minute of this, Albert brings a large glass of water. Darwin pauses, sits up, drinks from Albert’s hands, and then returns to his exercises.)

Dr. Gulley says, sir, that when this process is repeated day after day, a certain quantity of blood is fixed in the blood vessels and reduces the amount that was congested in the inner skin that was causing the problems… Has the sweating begun yet?

Charles

It has.

Albert

One hour at the beginning, he said. Next week we can increase it to two.

Charles

You’re getting so proficient at this, Albert. I won’t have to go back to Malvern.

Albert

But there are so many more expert facilities.

Charles

I thought it ingenious the way we put that douche together.

Albert

I must say so, too, sir.

Charles

I’m getting a good sweat up now.

Albert

Good. Take another glass of water and then after a bit I’ll call Mrs. Darwin.

Charles

I just hope all of these exertions produce results.

Albert

They will, sir. Look how many people take the water cure and have their health improved. It’s a fact. I know people personally, members of my own family. (He helps Darwin take another glass of water, who proceeds with his exertions.)

Charles

I haven’t sweat like this in thirty years. (Camera zooms in on his sweating, agonized face giving us an extreme close-up. When it zooms back,

Scene l0a

Darwin is experiencing the blistering heat of the Galapagos Islands in September 1835. The day is glowing hot and he is scrambling vigorously over a plain of ancient lava, which is permeated like a sieve. Hastening over this rough surface, he confronts a bizarre scene. Two gigantic tortoises, each about 200 pounds. One is eating a piece of cactus, looks up at Darwin and stalks away. The other emits a deep hiss and draws its head in. The effect of the whole scene is antediluvian: huge reptiles, black lava, leafless shrubs, large cacti, the boiling sun. And an intruder, young Charles Darwin. He collects specimens of rock, flowers, insects and puts them in a box he keeps in a knapsack. Then he sits on a rock, takes out a notebook and records what he has seen. And sees. His face is sweating heavily, but his expression is full of health and vigor and eagerness.)

*

Scene 10b

(Cut to Mrs. Darwin bustling into the room with a book in her hand. Charles wakens from his reverie.

Emma

And how are you feeling, now, Charles?

Charles

Better.

Emma