A More Perfect Heaven (13 page)

FRANZ
returns with two filled glasses.

BISHOP. No one may sing those hateful hymns any longer. On pain of … Aaahhh. Here’s our spirit.

COPERNICUS
takes a glass, puts the medicine in it, and hands it to the
BISHOP,
who drinks it.

BISHOP. Agh! Curse that poison! It’s killed the taste of pleasure.

COPERNICUS. (
raising the other glass
) To good health, Your Reverence.

BISHOP. Amen.

They both drink.

COPERNICUS
gives his glass to
FRANZ,
prepares to leave.

BISHOP. Don’t hurry off, Nicholas.

COPERNICUS. Sleep will be the best company now, and will soon arrive.

BISHOP. Stay and have another glass. Your conversation is a comfort to me.

At a signal from the
BISHOP, FRANZ
exits.

COPERNICUS. I should go now.

BISHOP. What’s your hurry?

COPERNICUS. I must not keep Your Reverence from the sleep I have prescribed.

BISHOP. Rushing home to your … manly duties?

COPERNICUS. My … ?

BISHOP. Don’t give me that innocent look. You know what I’m talking about. COPERNICUS. I don’t …

BISHOP. Your harlot!

COPERNICUS. You mean my … ?

BISHOP. You know damn well who I mean.

COPERNICUS. She’s not …

BISHOP. You should get rid of her.

COPERNICUS. But she …

BISHOP. She’s not Lutheran, is she?

COPERNICUS. No.

BISHOP. Get rid of her anyway.

FRANZ
returns with more wine, pours.

BISHOP. I’m serious, Nicholas. I want her out of your house. It looks bad. Keeping an unmarried woman like that.

COPERNICUS. She cooks and cleans for me.

BISHOP. She’s not even related to you. It’s unseemly.

COPERNICUS. If I had a female relative who could …

BISHOP. And much too good-looking.

COPERNICUS. She’s done nothing wrong.

BISHOP. Get yourself an old hag. Or a boy, to take care of your … needs. (
drinks his second glass
) Listen, Nicholas. For myself, I don’t care who’s in your bed. I understand a man’s appetites. God knows, I sowed my oats. Fathered a child or two, here and there, before … But it’s different now. With Luther and his devils screaming to high Heaven and Rome about Church abuses, a man in your position … A canon of this cathedral! You must appear above reproach.

COPERNICUS. Yes, Your Reverence.

BISHOP. (
yawning
) Go on home now. Tell her to find a new position. Someplace far away from here.

COPERNICUS
exits.

Lights fade. A bell tolls the hour: 3 o’clock.

SCENE ii. OUTSIDE COPERNICUS’s HOUSE
STRANGER ARRIVES

Minutes later, outside the cathedral wall,
COPERNICUS
walks home with a lantern. At the door of his house, he discovers
RHETICUS
lying on the ground.
COPERNICUS
jumps back, then bends down to examine him, checking his pulse, loosening his clothing.

RHETICUS
awakens with a cry, lashes out.

RHETICUS. Ho! Get off me!

COPERNICUS. Are you ill?

RHETICUS. Get away from me! Thief !

COPERNICUS. I was just trying to …

RHETICUS. Thief !

RHETICUS
pounces on

COPERNICUS;
they scuffle.

COPERNICUS. No! Oh!

RHETICUS. What did you take?

COPERNICUS. I didn’t … Oh!

RHETICUS. Give it back!

COPERNICUS. Don’t!

RHETICUS. (
pinning
COPERNICUS
to the ground
) Give it back or I’ll strangle you.

COPERNICUS. (
choked, gasping
) I’m a doctor.

RHETICUS. What?

COPERNICUS. I’m a doctor. I thought you were hurt. I was trying to help.

RHETICUS
releases
COPERNICUS,
then stands, pats his body to make sure he has his belongings, looks in his satchel.

COPERNICUS
tries to stand.

RHETICUS. Don’t move.

COPERNICUS. Who are you?

RHETICUS. You scared me to death.

COPERNICUS. I thought you were dead. I thought …

RHETICUS. I was just waiting there, when you came along and …

COPERNICUS. You were lying on the ground.

RHETICUS. Right there. I was sitting right over there.

COPERNICUS. (
struggling to rise
) Who are you?

RHETICUS. I was waiting to see …

COPERNICUS. Ow!

RHETICUS. Are you hurt?

COPERNICUS. My ankle. I think I …

RHETICUS. You must have twisted it when you fell.

COPERNICUS. (
indicating
RHETICUS’S
satchel
) Give me that, will you?

COPERNICUS
props the satchel under his foot, ties his handkerchief around his ankle.

RHETICUS. I’m sorry I hurt you, Doctor. I didn’t know …

COPERNICUS. What are you doing here?

RHETICUS. I’m waiting for Canon Copernicus. This is his house, isn’t it?

COPERNICUS. What do you want with him?

RHETICUS. Is he sick? Is that why you’ve come?

COPERNICUS. No, he’s not sick.

RHETICUS. Thank God. Imagine if I’d come all this way, only to find the great canon, the starry canon, too sick to receive me.

COPERNICUS. What did you call him?

RHETICUS. Please forgive me, Doctor. I don’t normally get into fistfights. You may not believe this, but I’m a scholar by profession.

COPERNICUS. You?

RHETICUS. A mathematician.

COPERNICUS. Really?

RHETICUS. Professor of mathematics, in fact. (
extending his hand
) My name is RHETICUS, sir. Georg Joachim Rheticus.

COPERNICUS
starts to extend his own hand.

RHETICUS. Of the mathematics faculty at Wittenberg.

COPERNICUS. (
withdrawing his hand
) Wittenberg?!

RHETICUS. You’ve heard of it, of course?

COPERNICUS. You came here? From Wittenberg?

RHETICUS. To tell you the truth, I was actually stopping at Nuremberg when I decided to come here.

COPERNICUS. But Wittenberg is …

RHETICUS. Nuremberg is even farther. It added another hundred miles to my journey.

COPERNICUS. But it’s not safe.

RHETICUS. Not safe to travel anywhere these days. Between the bandits and the dogs. And the rain! Twice in one day I was almost drowned fording rivers.

COPERNICUS. From Wittenberg.

RHETICUS. The canon will know its reputation …

COPERNICUS. Indeed.

RHETICUS. As a place where the study of mathematics has always flourished.

COPERNICUS. (
returning the satchel
) Here, take this back.

RHETICUS. Keep it, please. Use it as long as you like.

COPERNICUS. (
rising with difficulty
) This is Poland, Professor. Catholic Poland.

RHETICUS. I’m sure Canon Copernicus will welcome me, as a natural philosopher.

COPERNICUS. He will do no such thing. He cannot.

RHETICUS. We’ll see what he … Whoa, there, Doctor. Are you sure you can walk?

COPERNICUS. (
indicating the house
) I don’t have far to go.

RHETICUS. Here? But … You mean you are … ?

COPERNICUS
nods.

RHETICUS. (
kneeling
) Oh, no. Oh, my God! Oh, please forgive me!

COPERNICUS. Now, now. Don’t …

RHETICUS. All the times I pictured our meeting, and to think … Dear Lord, how I’ve botched things!

COPERNICUS. It’s all right. I’m fine. But you had better move on. This is no place for you.

RHETICUS. If only you knew how I …

COPERNICUS. Please, get up.

RHETICUS. The whole way here, I rehearsed, over and over, what I would say when I met you.

COPERNICUS. Say it, then. On your feet.

RHETICUS. (
rising
) Canon Copernicus, I … Is that the right way to address you, sir? Or should I call you “Father”? Did you say you were a doctor?

COPERNICUS. It doesn’t matter. Say your piece.

RHETICUS. Begging your pardon, Canon sir. Doctor. I have letters here from … (
fishing in his satchel
) Letters of introduction from …

COPERNICUS. Don’t bother with that.

RHETICUS. Here they are, sir. From Schöner in Nuremberg. And another one here from Hartmann, and also Peter Apian, and …

COPERNICUS. Did you say, from Schöner?

RHETICUS. Yes, sir.
(handing him the letter)
Here, see for yourself. He was gracious enough to let me stay several weeks with him, in his home. This one is from Camerarius, in Tubingen. He tried to convince me not to look for you. He said you must be dead by now. Excuse me, sir. I meant no offense. It’s just that no one has heard from you in so long. They’re all waiting. They wonder why you’ve kept silent all this time.

COPERNICUS
finishes reading the letter.

COPERNICUS. I have … nothing to say.

RHETICUS. You are too modest, sir. What you’ve done … Why, you have made the greatest leap in astronomy since … Ptolemy introduced the equant. (
brandishing the letters
) Everyone speaks of you. “The Polish canon,” they call you, “who spins the Earth and makes the Sun and stars stand still.” They say you’ve been working at your thesis for more years than I’ve lived.

COPERNICUS. I’m finished with all that now.

RHETICUS. You’ve finished? You’re ready to release the details?

COPERNICUS. There’s nothing here for you, Professor. You should go back to Wittenberg. I’m sure your students miss you.

RHETICUS. With all due respect, sir. Classes are suspended for the summer holiday. And besides, I have been on special leave the past two semesters, on a personal mission, meeting with the most learned mathematicians of our time. I believe that you, sir, are the culmination of my quest. The very key to the perfection of the heavenly spheres.

Beat.

RHETICUS. Sir, I seek to restore the queen of mathematics, that is, Astronomy, to her palace, as she deserves, and to redraw the boundaries of her kingdom.

COPERNICUS. I can’t help you.

RHETICUS. Only you can help me.

COPERNICUS. Good night, Professor.

COPERNICUS
starts for his door.

RHETICUS. And I can help you, too. Let me tell you my plan.

COPERNICUS. I wish you a safe journey.

RHETICUS. Hear me out!

COPERNICUS. Hush. I’m telling you, for your own safety, to leave this place. RHETICUS. In the middle of the night? After I’ve traveled weeks just to find you?

Blackout.

SCENE iii. INSIDE COPERNICUS’S HOUSE GIFTS

Moments later,
COPERNICUS
enters the main room of the house (not as ornate as the
BISHOP’s
palace, though comfortable).

The house is dimly lit, but very gradually, through the scene, dawn begins to lighten the room.

RHETICUS
follows

COPERNICUS
into the room.

COPERNICUS. You can spread out your bedding in there.

RHETICUS. I’m not the least bit tired. I wonder whether we could just take a few moments to …

COPERNICUS. In the pantry, you’ll find some bread. You may take what you need for your …

RHETICUS. Oh! I almost forgot! In all the confusion, sir, I never gave you the gifts I brought.

COPERNICUS. I can’t accept gifts.

RHETICUS. (
pulling books from his satchel
) You must. This is Ptolemy.

COPERNICUS. Thank you, but no. I have studied Ptolemy, of course. Every astronomer has studied …