NAME OF THE ROSE
A PALIMPSEST OF UMBERTO ECO'S NOVEL
(Transcript)
ADSO (V.O.)
Having reached the end of my poor sinner's life... my hair now white... I prepare to leave on this parchment my testimony as to the wondrous and terrible events I witnessed in my youth... towards the end of the year of Our Lord, 1327.
May God grant me the wisdom and grace to be the faithful chronicler of the happenings that took place in a remote abbey in the dark north of Italy: an abbey whose name it seems even now pious and prudent to omit.
(William and Adso arrive at the abbey)
ADSO (V.O.): May my hand not tremble now that I start to relive the past and revive the feelings of uneasiness that oppressed my heart as we entered the battlements.
INT.
ABBOT: Should we tell him?
MALACHIA: No. He will look in the wrong places.
ABBOT: But... what if he should learn it of his own accord?
MALACHIA: You overestimate his talents, my lord abbot. There's only one authority capable of investigating such matters. ... The holy Inquisition.
ABBOT: What is your opinion, Venerable Jorge? Jorge: Dear brethren, I leave such worldly matters to younger men.
WILLIAM: Adso? Adso: Yes, master.
WILLIAM: In order to command nature one must first learn to obey it. Hmm? So, return to the forecourt, get the edificium on your left... enter the quadrangle on you right, you'll find the place you need. Behind the third arch.
Adso: But you told me you'd never been to this abbey. WILLIAM: When we arrived, I saw a brother making for the spot in some haste. I noticed, however, that he emerged more slowly with an air of contentment.
ADSO: Thank you, master.
WILLIAM: (sees a crow at the graveyard)
(hears footsteps)
ABBOT: On behalf of the Benedictine order, I am honored to welcome you and your Franciscan brothers to our abbey.
WILLIAM: The other delegates, they have arrived?
ABBOT: Ubertino de Casale has been here for some weeks. The others are due tomorrow. You must be very tired after your long journey. WILLIAM: No. Not particularly.
ABBOT: I trust you're not in need of anything?
WILLIAM: No. Thank you.
ABBOT: Well... then I... I bid you peace.
WILLIAM: I'm sorry to see one of your brethern has recently been gathered unto God.
ABBOT: (surprised) ... Yes, a terrible loss. Brother Adelmo was one of our finest illuminators.
WILLIAM: Not Adelmo of Otranto?
ABBOT: You knew him?
WILLIAM: No, but I knew and admired his work. His humor and comic images were almost infamous. But he was said to be a young man.
ABBOT: Ah, yes. Yes, very young indeed. WILLIAM: An accident, no doubt?
ABBOT: Yes. Yes, as you say, an accident. Well, that is, I... (looks around and closes the door) Brother William... may I speak to you candidly?
WILLIAM: You seem most anxious to do so.
ABBOT: When I heard you were coming to our abbey, I thought it was an answer to my prayers.
"Here," I said, "is a man who has knowledge, both of the human spirit and of the wiles of the evil one." The fact is, Brother Adelmo's death has caused much spiritual unease upon my flock.
WILLIAM: This is my novice, Adso... the youngest son of the Baron of Melk. Please, do continue.
ABBOT: We found the body after a hailstorm... horribly mutilated, dashed against a rock at the foot of the tower... under a window, which was... How shall I say this? which was...
WILLIAM: Which was found closed.
ABBOT: Somebody told you?
WILLIAM: Had it been found open, you would not have spoken of spiritual unease. You would have concluded that he'd fallen.
ABBOT: Brother William... the window cannot be opened... nor was the glass shattered... nor is there any access to the roof above.
WILLIAM: Oh, I see. And because you can offer no natural explanation, your monks suspect the presence of a supernatural force within these walls.
ABBOT: That's why I need the counsel of an acute man such as you, Brother Wiliam. Acute in uncovering and prudent, if necessary, in... covering up before the papal delegates arrive.
WILLIAM: Surely you know, my lord, I no longer deal in such matters.
ABBOT: I am indeed reluctant to burden you with my dilemma, but... unless I can put the minds of my flock at rest, I will have no alternative but to summon the help of the Inquisition.
EXT.
WILLIAM: Adso! INT. (a man is lying on the floor)
WILLIAM: That is Ubertino de Casale... one of the great spiritual leaders of our order. Come.
WILLIAM: Many revere him as a living saint... but others would have him burnt as a heretic. His book on the poverty of the clergy is not favored reading in the papal palaces. So, now he lives in hiding like an outlaw.
UBERTINO: Fellow Franciscans... you must leave this place at once. The devil is roaming this abbey.
WILLIAM: Ubertino... it's William. William of Baskerville.
UBERTINO: William...? No. No. William is dead. William, my son... forgive me. We had lost trace of you for so long.
WILLIAM: I tried very hard to be forgotten.
UBERTINO: When we heard of your troubles... I prayed to our Virgin for a miracle.
WILLIAM: Then your prayers met with a favorable response. This is my young novice, Adso of Melk. His father has entrusted me with his education and welfare. UBERTINO: You must get him out of here at once! Have you not heard, the devil is hurling beautiful boys out of windows? There was something feminine... something diabolical about the young one who died. He had the eyes of a girl seeking intercourse with the devil.
Beware of this place. The beast is still among us. I can sense him now, here... within these very walls. I'm afraid, William... for you, for me... for the outcome of this debate.
Oh, my son. The times we live in. But let us not frighten our young friend.
(looks up at the Blessed Mary) She's beautiful, is she not? When the female... by nature, so perverse... becomes sublime by holiness, then she can be the noblest vehicle of grace. (says in Latin) "Beautiful are the breasts that protrude but a little." EXT.
ADSO: I don't like this place.
WILLIAM: Really? I find it most stimulating. Come. Adso, we must not allow ourselves to be influenced by irrational rumors of the Antichrist. Let us instead exercise our brains and try to solve this tantalising conundrum.
(peasants bring the tithe) MONK: "For what thou givest on earth, verily shalt you receive an hundred-fold in paradise."
ADSO (V.O): My master trusted Aristotle, the Greek philosophers and the faculties of his own remarkable, logical intelligence. Unhappily, my fears were not mere phantoms of my youthful imagination.
(the two come to the tower)
WILLIAM: A rather dark end for such a brilliant illuminator.
WILLIAM: Another generous donation by the Church to the poor.
Now, what if it wasn't that tower that he fell from but somewhere over there, and the body rolled all the way down here? Adso? No devil needed anymore.
(a stone rolls down)
WILLIAM: Adso? No devil needed
(Adso sees a peasant girl)
WILLIAM: Yes. More blood here. That's where he fell from. He jumped. Adso, are you paying attention?
ADSO: Yes, he jumped. Jumped? You mean that he committed suicide?
WILLIAM: Yes. Why else would someone go up there at night in the middle of a hailstorm? Certainly not to admire the landscape. ADSO: No. Perhaps... perhaps someone murdered him. WILLIAM: And then toiled all the way up there with the body? Easier to get rid of it through that sluice gate they pour charity through.
WILLIAM: No, no. My dear Adso, it's elementary. Suicide?
ADSO: Do you think that this... is a place abandoned by God?
WILLIAM: Have you ever known a place where God would have felt at home?
INT. ABBEY. DINING ROOM
ABBOT: We praise almighty God... that there are no grounds for suspecting the presence of an evil spirit among us... either of this world or another.
We praise our Lord that the debate which we are so greatly honored to host... may now proceed without a shadow of fear.
We also praise the Almighty for sending us Brother William of Baskerville... whose experience in previous duties, although onerous to him, has been of such service to us here.
May serenity and spiritual peace reign once more in our hearts.
MONK: (reads in Latin) "A monk should keep silent. He should not speak his thoughts... until he is questioned. A monk should not laugh. For it is the fool alone... who lifts up his voice in laughter."
INT. NIGHT.
ADSO: Master.
WILLIAM: Hmm.
ADSO: If I may ask, what... "onerous duties" was the abbot talking about? Were you not always a monk?
WILLIAM: Even monks have pasts, Adso. Now, do try to sleep. ADSO: I just... Yes, master.
INT. NIGHT JORGE: "In much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth his knowledge increaseth his sorrow also."
VENANTIUS: (in the scriptorium he reads a book, and laughs)
GERENGAR: (in his room he whips his own body)
WILLIAM: (in his room he strains his ears for a sound)
REMIGIO: (sneaks out of the gate)
INT. DAWN.
(monk rings the bell) (William and Adso also attend Matins) (some monks, shouting, burst into the chapel)
MONKS: A calamity! It was a calamity! Father! A tragedy in the pigpen! Come! Come quickly!
EXT.
(a monk hangs headfirst into a jar)
WILLIAM: (to Adso) This one, I grant you, did not commit suicide. SEVERINUS: Water!
MONK: Here.
ABBOT: (gasps)
SEVERINUS: Venantius, the Greek translator!
ABBOT: I am to blame. Had I not been so eager to believe your convenient explanation, this second tragedy might've been prevented.
WILLIAM: I am absolutely convinced Brother Adelmo took his own life. Now, whether-
UBERTINO: Then the hail...
WILLIAM: Whether this death is connected in any way with it, I intend to find.
UBERTINO: "... after the hailstorm, with the second trumpet... the sea became blood. And behold... here is blood!" MONK: The prophecy of the Apocalypse!
UBERTINO: "With the third trumpet, a burning star... will fall in fountains of water." MONK: "Do not squander! The last seven days!"
INT. HERBALIST'S ROOM
(William and Severinus are examinig the body)
SEVERINUS: Grated stem of waterwort for treating diarrhea. And as for onions, administered in small quantities, warm and moist, they help prolong the male erection... in those who have not taken our vows, naturally.
WILLIAM: Do you find many circumstances in which you apply arsenic, Brother Severinus?
SEVERINUS: Yes, indeed. It is a most effective remedy for nervous disorders...
SEVERINUS: if taken as a compound in small doses.
WILLIAM: And what of not-so-small doses?
SEVERINUS: Death.
WILLIAM: What was this monk's function here?
SEVERINUS: He was our finest translator of Greek... entirely devoted to the works of Aristotle.
WILLIAM: Was he on friendly terms with the handsome young Adelmo?
SEVERINUS: Oh, indeed so. They worked together in the scriptorium. But in a brotherly way, you understand? Not like... I mean, flesh can be tempted according to nature... or against nature. And they were not of the latter disposition.... if you ascertain my meaning.
INT. (Adso is looking up many grotesque carvings in stone)
SALVATORE: 'Penitenziagite!' Watch out for the 'dracul' who cometh 'in futurum' to gnaw on your anima! Death is supreme. You contemplate the apocalypse? There, we have the devil. Ugly 'con' Salvatore, eh? My little brother, 'penitenziagite.' WILLIAM: "Penitenziagite"? SALVATORE: I didn't say that.
WILLIAM: You said "penitenziagite." I heard you. SALVATORE: Noble brother, "magnifico"! I don't have a good rhetoric. But men must do "penitence." I'm a monk. Saint Benedict! Saint Benedict!
MONK: Salvatore, come here.
EXT.
ADSO: Master, what language was he speaking? WILLIAM: All languages, and none.
ADSO: And what was the word you both kept mentioning?
WILLIAM: "Penitenziagite"?
ADSO: What does it mean?
WILLIAM: It means the hunchback, undoubtedly was once a heretic. "Penitenziagite" was the rallying cry of the Dolcinites.
ADSO: Dolcinites? Who were they, master?
WILLIAM: Those who believed in the poverty of Christ.
ADSO: So do we Franciscans.
WILLIAM: But they also declared that everyone must be poor. So they slaughtered the rich. You see, Adso... the step between ecstatic vision and sinful frenzy... is all too brief.
ADSO: Well, then, could he not have killed the translator?
WILLIAM: No. No. Fat bishops and wealthy priests were more to the taste of the Dolcinites. Hardly a specialist of Aristotle. But, yes, you're right. We must keep an open mind.
We are very fortunate to have such snowy ground here. It's often the parchment on which the criminal unwillingly writes his autograph.
Now, what do you read from these footprints here?
ADSO: That they are twice as deep as the others, master. WILLIAM: Good, Adso. And thus we may conclude...? ADSO: Well, that the man was very heavy.
WILLIAM: Precisely! And why was he very heavy? ADSO: Because... he was very fat?
WILLIAM: Or because he was being burdened... with the weight of another man. Let us commit the autograph of this sole to our memory.
ADSO: But the footprints lead away from the jar in this direction.
WILLIAM: Oh, you turnip, Adso. You're discounting the possibility that the man was walking backwards, dragging the body thus... Hence, the furrows created by the heels. Now, where did the erudite Greek translator meet the anonymous author of his death?
INT. SCRIPTORIUM.
(the librarian hastily closes a door)
WILLIAM: Brother librarian. Perhaps you will permit us to examine the work of the two unfortunates... that were so distressingly gathered unto God.
Your request is most unusual.
WILLIAM: As are the circumstances of their deaths.
MALACHIA: Brother Adelmo sat there.
WILLIAM: Thank you. (takes out his magnifying glasses) MONK: Eyes of glass in twin hoops.
WILLIAM: (seeing a manuscript) A donkey teaching the scriptures to the bishops. The pope is a fox. The abbot is a monkey. He really had a daring talent for comic images.
BERENGAR: (seeing a rat, screams)
MONKS: (laugh)
JORGE: (strikes a pot to pieces) "A monk should not laugh. Only fool lifts up his voice in laughter."
I trust my words didn't offend you, Brother William... but I heard the persons laughing at laughable things. You Franciscans, however, belong to an order where merriment is viewed with indulgence. WILLIAM: Yes, it's true. St. Francis was much disposed to laughter. JORGE: Laughter is a devillish wind which deforms the lineaments of the face and makes men look like monkeys. WILLIAM: Monkeys do not laugh. Laughter is particular to man.
JORGE: As is sin. Christ never laughed.
WILLIAM: Can we be so sure?
JORGE: There is nothing in the scriptures to say that He did.
WILLIAM: And there's nothing in the scriptures to say that He did not. Even the saints have been known to employ comedy to ridicule the enemies of the faith.
For example, when the pagans plunged St. Maurus into the boiling water, he complained that his bath was too cold. The Sultan put his hand in, scalded it.
JORGE: A saint immersed in boiling water does not play childish tricks. He restrains his cries and suffers for the truth.
WILLIAM: And yet, Aristotle devoted his second book of Poetics to comedy as an instrument of truth.
JORGE: You have read this work?
WILLIAM: No, of course not. It's been lost for many centuries.
JORGE: No, it has not! It was never written! Because Providence doesn't want futile things glorified. WILLIAM: Oh, that I must contest...
JORGE: Enough! This abbey is overshadowed by grief. Yet you would intrude on our sorrow with idle banter!
WILLIAM: Forgive me, Venerable Jorge. My remarks were truly out of place.
WILLIAM: (to a monk) Which was the Greek translator's desk?
MONK: This one.
WILLIAM: Come, Adso.
EXT. WILLIAM: Well, Adso, what did you deduce from that visit? ADSO: That we are not meant to laugh in there.
WILLIAM: But did you notice how few books there were on the scryptorium shelves? All those scriveners, copyists, translators, researchers, thinkers... But where are the multitude of books that they need for their work? And for which this abbey is famed. Where are the books?
ADSO: Are you testing me, master?
WILLIAM: What do you mean?
ADSO: Well, with all due respect... it seems that whenever you ask me a question, you already have the answer. Do you know where the books are?
WILLIAM: No. But I'll wager my faith that that tower contains something other than air.
ADSO: Did you notice that little door the librarian closed as we came in?
WILLIAM: Yes.
ADSO: Would that lead to the library?
(something falls onto them)
WILLIAM: (crys)
ADSO: (follows) Master! Master, quick! I have him!
WILLIAM: Stop! Enough!
ADSO: Master, he tried to kill us! REMIGIO: Salvatore! (slaps his face)
(to William) Please, don't talk to the abbot about his past. He's innocent of the deaths in this abbey. I swear it.
WILLIAM: Brother Remigio, we need you. My price is some information.
ADSO (V.O.): I could not comprehend why my master so quickly dismissed my suspicions of the heretical hunchback... and why it was so urgent that we visit the tower. I assumed he could not resist the temptation to penetrate the library and look at the books.
INT. LIBRARY - NIGHT
(The assistant librarian, who is reading a book all alone, puts out a candle)
WILLIAM: No lock. Just as I thought, it must be bolted from the inside. ADSO: How do we get in?
WILLIAM: Well, obviously, there must be another entrance. Let's see what the moon-faced assistant librarian was trying to conceal from us this morning, shall we?
(finds a note) Tiny Greek letters, perhaps written by an ant with inky feet.
"Use vulgar people take pleasure from their defects... "
(brings the note to a candle) Ah, yes. Written with lemon juice. "Sagittarius... Sun... Mercury... Scorpion." It's some zodiacal code giving directions, but to where?
(clanks) Who's there? Hey! Who's there? Who's there?
(somwone taking the book, flees)
WILLIAM: My magnifying glasses! They were on that book.
EXT. NIGHT WILLIAM: (to Adso) You go that way.
(to light his lantern, Adso enters the kitchen)
REMIGIO: Come on out, you little bitch! I know you are here. I can smell you. What's the matter with you, huh? Are you afraid of me?
(a girl is hiding)
I'll find you.
(the girl seduces Adso)
ADSO (V.O.): Who was she? Who was this creature that rose like the dawn... was bewitching as the moon, radiant as the sun... terrible as an army poised for battle?
WILLIAM: Good evening, Salvatore. This is where you catch them?
SALVATORE: You see, they are "piu grasso." Bigger, eh?
WILLIAM: You... You eat them?
SALVATORE: You like?
WILLIAM: Thank you, no. No.
SALVATORE: "Ich bin" good catholic.
WILLIAM: As you're a good Christian, you must tell me this. So Adelmo gave the parchment to Berengar? SALVATORE: No, no. To the translo... the transla...
WILLIAM: Translator! Venantius, the black monk.
SALVATORE: Yes, yes.
WILLIAM: And what happened then?
SALVATORE: Then...
INT. KITCHEN
ADSO: (finds a lump of flesh) Master! In here, quick! I found another one.
WILLIAM: Where are your wits, boy? Have you ever met anyone with a rib cage large enough to accommodate a heart of those dimensions?
ADSO: No. No.
WILLIAM: It is the heart of an ox. One of the monks probably gave it to that peasant girl in exchange for her favors.
ADSO: Girl? Well, what...?
WILLIAM: The one I saw scuttling out of here. He must have been a very ugly monk.
ADSO. Why ugly?
WILLIAM: If he'd been young and beautiful, she would no doubt have blessed him with her carnal favors for nothing.
In any event, whatever happened in this dreadful kitchen has no bearing on our investigations.
The hunchback convinced me that Brother Berengar, the assistant librarian, is the key to the whole enigma. What did you say?
ADSO: Nothing, master. WILLIAM: Good.
INT. NIGHT
ADSO: Master? There's something I must tell you.
WILLIAM: I know.
ADSO: Then, will you hear my confession? WILLIAM: Well, I'd rather you told me first as a friend.
ADSO: Master. Have you ever been... in love?
WILLIAM: In love? Yeah. Many times.
ADSO: You were?
WILLIAM: Of course. Aristotle, Ovid, Virgil...
ADSO: No, no, no. I meant with a...
WILLIAM: Oh. Ah. Are you not confusing love with lust?
ADSO: Am I? I don't know.
WILLIAM: I want only her own good.
ADSO: I want her to be happy. I want to save her from her poverty. WILLIAM: Oh, dear.
ADSO: Why "oh, dear"?
WILLIAM: You are in love.
ADSO: Is that bad?
WILLIAM: For a monk, it does present certain problems.
ADSO: But doesn't St. Thomas Aquinas praise love above all other virtues?
WILLIAM: Yes. The love of God, Adso. The love of God!
ADSO: And the love of... woman?
WILLIAM: Of woman, Thomas Aquinas knew precious little. But the scriptures are very clear. Proverbs warns us, "Woman takes possession of a man's precious soul." While Ecclesiastics tells us, "More bitter than death is woman."
ADSO: Yes, but what do you think, master? WILLIAM: Well... Of course, I don't have the benefit of your experience. But I find it difficult to convince myself... that God would have introduced such a foul being into creation... without endowing her with some virtues. Hm? How peaceful life would be without love, Adso. How safe. How tranquil. .. and how dull.
EXT. DAY DELEGATES: How beautiful! Lord, you have guided our steps to this refuge of spiritual peace because you wish for reconciliation as much as we Franciscans. Let us go, brothers. Thy will be done, oh Lord. Amen. Amen.
WILLIAM: (knocks) Brother Berengar? He's probably hiding somewhere with the book and my magnifying glasses.
SCRIPTORIUM
WILLIAM: Brother Berengar? ADSO: Master, look. The door.
ADSO: Oh!
WILLIAM: Brother Malachia. I was just looking for your assistant, Brother Berengar. Is he here?
MALACHIA: No.
WILLIAM: I see. Do you know where we might find him?
MALACHIA: No.
WILLIAM: Or is he perhaps upstairs in the library?
MALACHIA: No.
WILLIAM: I am curious to see the library for myself. May I do so? MALACHIA: No.
WILLIAM: Why not? MALACHIA: It is a strict rule of the abbot that no one is permitted to enter the abbey library other than myself and my assistant. WILLIAM: I see. Thank you again.
INT. CHAPEL
ADSO: Maybe something's happened to him. Maybe we'll find him in water.
WILLIAM: What?
ADSO: The third trumpet, master, as Ubertino said. The book of Revelation.
WILLIAM: That is not the book we're after.
EXT. YARD
(peasants present the tithe)
SALVATORE: You call this a chiken, do you? It looks more like a sparrow.
(Delegates arrive)
SAVATORE: Franciscans.
ABBOT: Welcome to our abbey, Brother Michele, and to your fellow Franciscan delegates.
MONK: Hey, you, 'paesano'! Go! SALVATORE: You get in line like the others. Go!
DELEGATE: Unhand me!
ABBOT: Salvatore, let him go. This is Cuthbert of Winchester, one of our most esteemed Franciscan guests. Come, Your Grace. We have a very urgent matter to discuss.
INT.
MONK 1: But the abbot and his colleagues seem convinced that the devil is at work within these walls.
UBERTINO: He is! WILLIAM: The only evidence I see of the devil... is everyone's desire to see him at work. MONK 2: What if Ubertino is right and you are wrong?
MONK 3: Don't forget, William, this debate is crucial to us all. MONK 4: We suspect the Pope wants to crush our order.
MONK 5: And declare us heretics.
MONK 3: Yes, and declare us all heretics.
WILLIAM: I only have one brother to question, and the entire matter is resolved.
MONK 1: William, we place our trust in you. Pray God that you do not abuse it.
(another monk comes up to them) MONK: Brother William.
(Berengar's body floats)
WILLIAM: Did you find a book in Greek?
SEVERINUS: No.
WILLIAM: (sees Berengar's shoe) I was right.
ADSO: So was the book of Revelation.
ABBOT: We must talk at once.
WILLIAM: Indeed, we must. And I have much to tell. Just as soon as he and I have examined this corpse.
SEVERINUS: Lime leaves in the bath are always used to alleviate pain.
WILLIAM: He was left-handed.
SEVERINUS: Yes, yes. Brother Berengar was inverted in many ways.
WILLIAM: Are there other left-handed brothers at the abbey here?
SEVERINUS: None that I know of.
WILLIAM: Ink stains. He did not write with his tongue, I presume.
INT. ABBOT: A few lines of Greek.
WILLIAM: Yes, written by Venantius. Some random notes from the book he was reading just before he died. Do you see how the calligraphy changes? From this point on, he was dying. And what, my lord, do you conclude from that?
ABBOT: A smudge of blue paint.
WILLIAM: Yes, but a unique smudge of blue blended by your finest illuminator, Brother Adelmo who possessed this parchment before Venantius.
(cont'd) And how do we know that? Because those random notes overrun Adelmo's blue smudge, and not vice-versa.
ABBOT: Brother William, this abbey is enshrouded in a terrifying mystery. Yet, I detect nothing, in your obscure dissertation... that sheds any light upon it.
WILLIAM: Adso, light. Someone was at great pains to conceal a secret of the first magnitude. Now, the calligraphy is, without question, left-handed. And the only left-handed member of your community is... or rather was... Brother Berengar, the assistant librarian. Now, what kind of secret knowledge would he have been privy to?
ABBOT: I have the feeling that you're about to tell me.
WILLIAM: Books. Restricted books. Spiritually dangerous books. (cont'd) Everyone here knew of the assistant librarian's passion for handsome boys. When the beautiful Adelmo wanted to read such a forbidden book, Berengar offered him the key to its whereabouts... enciphered on that parchment in exchange for unnatural caresses.
ABBOT: Enough, Brother William!
WILLIAM: Adelmo agreed and duly submitted to Berengar's lustful advances. But afterwards, wracked by remorse, he wandered weeping and desperate in the graveyard, where he met the Greek translator.
ABBOT: How could you know this?
WILLIAM: There was a witness. The hunchback... who saw Adelmo giving this parchment to Venantius... then running towards the small tower and hurling himself out of the window. (cont'd) The night of my arrival, while Berengar punished his sinful flesh... Venantius, helped by the coded instructions on the parchment made his way into the forbidden library and found the book. He took it back to his desk in the scriptorium and began to read it. After scribbling down those mysterious quotations he died with a black stain on his finger.
(cont'd) The assistant librarian discovered the body and dragged it down to the pigpens to avert suspicion falling on him. But he left his autograph behind. The book remained on the translator's desk. Berengar returned there last night and read it. Soon after, overcome by some agonizing pain, he tried to take a soothing bath with lime leaves and drowned. He, too, had a blackened finger.
(cont'd) All three died because of a book which kills... or for which men will kill. I therefore urge you to grant me access to the library.
JORGE: Brother William, your pride blinds you. By idolizing reason you failed to see what is obvious to everyone in this abbey.
MALACHIA: (whispers in the abbot's ear) The papal delegation's arrived. Bernardo Gui.
ABBOT: Thank you, brother William. We are mindful of your efforts but I should now ask you to refrain from further investigations. (burns the parchment) (cont'd) Happily, there will be someone arriving with the papal delegation who is well-versed in the wiles of the evil one. A man, I believe, you know only too well. Bernardo Gui... of the Inquisition.
EXT.
ADSO: Master, who is Bernardo Gui?
MONK 1: William! I've been searching the entire abbey for you! Michele wishes to speak with you at once.
WILLIAM: Alone.
MONK 2: Do you know who is coming?
WILLIAM: I know, I know. Bernardo Gui. Ubertino must be moved to a place of safety.
MONK 1: The arrangements have been made. It is you that concerns us, William.
MONK 3: You must now put aside these totally irrelevant investigations. MONK 4: And erroneous conclusions.
WILLIAM: It is the truth, and I am right.
MONK 1: William is right. William is always right!
UBERTINO: No matter what the consequences, to himself or anyone else, William of Baskerville must always prove himself right.
MONK 3: Was it not your vanity, your stubborn intellectual pride that brought you into conflict with Bernardo before? MONK 2: Do not tempt fate twice, William. Not even the Emperor won't be able to save you if you tangle with Bernardo again.
ADSO (V.O.): My flesh had forgotten the sinful pleasure that our union had given me... but my soul could not forget her.
And now, now that I saw her in the midst of her poverty and squalor, I praised God in my heart that I was a Franciscan.
I wanted her to know that I did not belong to this rapacious abbey but to an order dedicated to lifting her people out of their physical destitution, and spiritual depravation.
Ubertino: Farewell, William. You are mad and arrogant... but I love you and shall never cease to pray for you.
(to Adso) Goodbye, dear child. Try not to learn too many bad examples from your master.
He thinks too much. Relying always on the deductions of his head... instead of trusting in the prophetic capacities... of his heart. Learn to mortify your intelligence. Weep over the wounds of our Lord!
Oh, and do throw away those books!
WILLIAM: There is a side of Ubertino that I truly envy. UBERTINO: Remember, fear the last trumpet, my friends. The next will fall from the sky, and then will come a thousand scorpions.
WILLIAM: Yes, yes. We won't forget. EXT. LIBRARY - NIGHT
WILLIAM: Which one frightens you most?
ADSO: They all do.
WILLIAM: No. Look closely.
ADSO: That one.
WILLIAM: My choice exactly. (They find an entrance to the catacombs)
WILLIAM: Well... After you. Those are the foundations of the tower. But how to reach the library?
(Adso screams) The rats love parchment even more than scholars do. Let's follow him.
166. Bolted scriptorium door. 167, 168, 169, 170. ... 317, 318....
I knew it. Adso! I knew it! Adso, do you realize... we're in one of the greatest libraries in the whole of Christendom? Wow!
ADSO: How will we going to find the book we're looking for? WILLIAM: In time.
ADSO: "The Beatus of Liebana."
WILLIAM: That, Adso, is a masterpiece. And this is the version annotated by Umberto de Bologna. How many more rooms, huh? How many more books? No one should be forbidden to consult these books freely.
ADSO: Perhaps they are thought to be too precious, too fragile.
WILLIAM: No, it's not that, Adso. It's because they often contain a wisdom different from ours... and ideas that could encourage us to doubt the infallibility of the word of God.
ADSO: Master? WILLIAM: And doubt, Adso, is the enemy of faith. ADSO: Master? Master? Master? Wait for me!
WILLIAM: But I am waiting for you. ADSO: But I can hear you walking.
WILLIAM: I'm not walking, Adso. I'm down here.
ADSO: Is that you up there?
WILLIAM: Where are you, boy?
ADSO: I'm lost!
WILLIAM: Well, Adso, it would appear that we're in a labyrinth. Are you still there? ADSO: Yes. How will we get out?
WILLIAM: With some difficulty... if at all. You see, Adso, that is the charm of a labyrinth. Adso, stay calm. Open a book... and read it aloud. Leave the room you're in... and keep turning left.
ADSO: (reads) "Love does not originate as an illness but is transformed into it when it becomes obsessive thoughts."
"The Muslim theologian Ahmed Hasim states that the lovesick person does not want to be healed and his dreams cause irregular breathing and quicken the pulse."
"He identifies amorous melancholia with lycanthropy, a disease that induces wolf-like behavior in its victims." "The lover's outer appearance begins to change. Soon his eyesight fails, his lips shrivel... and his face becomes covered with pustules and scabs."
"Marks resembling the bites of a dog appear on his face... and he ends his days by prowling graveyards... at night like a wolf."
Master? Master, I can see a lantern.
WILLIAM: Don't move. Stay where you are.
ADSO: I can see a man. He stopped.
WILLIAM: What is he doing?
ADSO: He's raising his lantern. WILLIAM: How many times?
ADSO: Three times. WILLIAM: It is I. Raise your lantern.
ADSO: (surprised) Look! WILLIAM: You foolish boy! It's only a mirror.
(the floor breaks)
ADSO: Master!
WILLIAM: Save the books.
ADSO: I'm trying to save you!
WILLIAM: A trap door and a mirror. We must be almost there.
WILLIAM: If I have deciphered the instructions of the Greek translator correctly... You did not think me so foolish as to surrender the parchment to the abbot without making a copy, right?
"Manus supra idolum, age primum et septimus de quatuor" is what?
ADSO: "With the hand above the idol press the first and the seventh of four'
WILLIAM: Very good.
ADSO: What idol?
WILLIAM: That's what we're here to find out.
ADSO: And the first and the seventh of four what? WILLIAM: If I had the answer to everything, I'd be teaching theology in Paris.
EXT. NIGHT
(The abbot welcomes the delegation properly.)
INT. LIBRARY
WILLIAM: And again. ... Do you hear that?
ADSO: It's my teeth, master.
WILLIAM: What? ADSO: My teeth. WILLIAM: Don't be afraid.
ADSO: I'm not afraid. I'm cold. WILLIAM: Well, we shall return.
ADSO: Don't leave on my account.
WILLIAM: No, no, no. I must confess, it eludes me for the moment. Now, let me see... to find your way out of a labyrinth... when you come to a fork, you mark it with an arrow... No, no, no. No.
ADSO: Master?
WILLIAM: Please, dear boy. I'm thinking. If there are arrows at the forks...
ADSO: (finds a way out) Master!
WILLIAM: Well done, boy! Your classical education serves us well.
EXT. NIGHT
GIRL: Give it to me. Give me!
SALVATORE: Bernardo, sprinkle me with the sperm. Then, you have the love. Spit, please. (to the girl) Spit over there.
(she spits at his face)
SALVATORE: Thank you. Lucifer, be at my service.
GIRL: Let go of me!
SALVATORE: Salvatore loves you!
(jumps on her, and the lamp falls onto the straw)
Aah! Aah! It's burning!
(bell rings)
ABBOT: Lord Bernardo, look what we found! Search the creature.
BERNARDO: My Lord abbot, you invited me to investigate the presence of the evil one in your abbey and I have already found it. How many times have I seen these objects of devil worship: the black cockerel and the black cat?
ADSO: (to master) But she did it for the food, not the devil. BERNARDO: William of Baskerville must surely recall the trial he presided over... in which a woman confessed to having intercourse with a demon in the form of a black cat.
WILLIAM: I'm very sure that you don't have to draw on my past experiences to formulate your conclusions, Lord Bernardo.
BERNARDO: No, indeed. Not when faced with such irrefutable evidence. A witch! A seduced monk! Satanic rites! Tomorrow... we shall endeavor to learn if these events are connected with the even graver mystery that afflicts your abbey.
Lock them up that we may all sleep safely tonight.
INT. NIGHT.
ADSO: You said... You said nothing.
WILLIAM: I said nothing because there was nothing to be said.
ADSO: You're ready enough to speak the truth... when it comes to books and ideas.
WILLIAM: She is already burnt flesh, Adso. Bernardo Gui has spoken. She is a witch. ADSO: But that's not true, and you know it.
WILLIAM: I know. I also know that anyone who disputes the verdict of an inquisitor is guilty of heresy.
ADSO: You seem to know a lot about it.
WILLIAM: Oh, yes.
ADSO: Won't you tell me... as a friend?
WILLIAM: Well, there's not much to tell. I, too, was an inquisitor, but in the early days, when the Inquisition strove to guide, not to punish.
And once I had to preside at the trial of a man... whose only crime was to have translated a Greek book that conflicted with the holy scriptures. Bernardo Gui wanted to condemn him as heretic. I acquitted the man. Then Gui accused me of heresy for having defended him. I appealed to the pope.
I was put in prison... tortured... and I recanted.
ADSO: What happened then?
WILLIAM: The man was burned at the stake. And I'm still alive.
SALVATORE: (crying lodly)
BERNARDO: Brother Salvatore... these torments will cause me as much pain as you. But you can put an end to them before we even begin. Open the gates of your heart. Search the depths of your soul. Search!
SALVATORE: I search! I search. I search.
BERNARDO: Then tell me... who, among your brethren, is the heretic responsible for these murders?
SALVATORE: I don't know. I don't know! I don't know anything! Stupid. Stupid. Me don't know anything.
NIGHT
ADSO (V.O): Did I lie awake that night suffering for the girl or for myself? I did not know. With the dawn, came the envoys of the pope: our adversaries in the forthcoming debate. But it meant so little to me now.
DEBATE - DAY
MICHELE: Your Eminence, venerable brothers... at last we meet for this long-awaited debate. We have all journeyed great distances in order to put an end to the dispute that has so gravely impaired the unity of our Holy Mother Church.
Good people throughout Christendom are directing their gazes at these venerable walls anxiously awaiting our answer to the vexed question: "Did Christ, or did He not, own the clothes that He wore?" ENVOY: Beloved brethren of the Franciscan Order. Our Holy Father, the pope, has authorized me and these, his faithful servants, to speak on his behalf.
The question is not whether Christ was poor... but whether the Church should be poor!
You Franciscans wish to see the clergy renounce its possessions... and surrender its richness... the abbeys dissipate their sacred treasures and hand over their fertile acres to the serfs.
SEVERINUS: (at the outside window) I found the book. I found it in the dispensary. A book in Greek was behind one of my jars. WILLIAM: Don't touch it. Return, lock yourself inside. I'll be there just as soon as I can.
ENVOY: Thereby depriving the Church of the resources needed to combat unbelievers and wage war on the infidel.
You forget that even the greatest monument to our Lord is but a pale reflection of His infinite Majesty and glory... far outstripping the church...
GRANARY (Severinus is killed)
MALACHIA: (to Remigio) Quick, Father, quick. Salvatore confessed to his radical past, and yours. You have but little time to escape the flames.
REMIGIO: Thank you, brother.
SOLDIERS: Come with us!
INT. DEBATE
FRANCISCAN 1: You call the pope's province "God's palace on Earth"? Answer that, your Eminence!
ENVOY 1: These murders are a sign that reconciliation... The gospels state categorically that Christ possessed a purse.
FRANCISCAN 2: It's a lie! You know it! The Lord commanded his disciples on no less than seven occasions: "Carry neither gold..." ENVOY 2: Venerable Brothers! BERNARDO: Brethren, if you pleae! A matter has occurred of the utmost gravity.
REMIGIO: Let me go! I swear, I didn't kill him! I was at the granary taking the inventory! I never killed anyone! I swear it!
BERNARDO: Then explain to us the purpose of your escape. REMIGIO: I was...
BERNARD: I had already ordered your arrest on other charges. I see now that I was correct.
(cont'd) Had someone else not chosen to look in the wrong direction... several men of God might still be with us.
WILLIAM: "To use vulgar persons. Take pleasure from their defects." Please, dear boy. I am trying to think!
ADSO: So am I, master. So am I!
WILLIAM: Then try using your head instead of your heart... and we might make some progress.
ADSO: A book's more important than people to you? WILLIAM: Did I say that they were?
ADSO: You never seem to care about anyone! Couldn't you at least show a little pity?
WILLIAM: Perhaps that is the style of my pity. But pity won't save her from the fire.
INT. INQUISITION
BERNARD: I remind all present that they are bound by their vow of obedience and, on pain of excommunication... to aid the inquisitor in his painful struggle against heresy.
To sit with me on this tribunal... and to share the burden of the verdict... I will require the counsel of two fellow judges. My lord Abbot... and... Brother William of Baskerville. (Salvatore, Remigio and the peasant girl are brought before the court) BERNARDO: Salvatore. Salvatore! Salvatore, will you repeat your confession of last night? That you and your accomplice, Remigio de Varagine... were members of the heretical Dolcinites?
SALVATORE: Si, si, si.
BERNARDO: Thank you.
SALVATORE: You forgive me!
BERNARDO: Enough! Remigio de Varagine, do you deny the confession of your accomplice?
REMIGIO: No. I don't deny it. I'm proud of it! For the twelve years I lived here... I did nothing but stuff my belly... shag my wick... and squeeze the hungry peasants for tithes.
But now you have given me the strength to remember what I once believed in with all my heart, and for that I thank you.
BERNARDO: To remember that you wantonly looted and burned the property of the church?
REMIGIO: Yes! To give it back to the people you stole it from in the first place.
BERNARDO: And did you not also slaughter many bishops and priests?
REMIGIO: Yes! And I'd butcher you people if I had half the chance!
ADSO: Holy Mary, Mother of God, hear my humble prayer. I know that my sin was very great, but I beg of you to not let her suffer for my wrongdoing.
Blessed Mother, many years ago you granted a miracle by saving my master. Will you not do the same for this girl?
My master says that the simple folk always pay for all. But, please, Holy Mother, do not let it be so.
BERNARDO: Guilty is that witch... who has seduced a monk and practiced her diabolical ritual within this hallowed place. Guilty is Salvatore... who has confessed to his heretical past and was caught in flagrante delicto with a witch! Guilty is Remigio de Varagine... who, in addition to unrepentant of his former heresies, was caught attempting to escape after murdering Severinus.
REMIGIO: That's a lie! I never killed the herbalist or anyone else in this abbey!
BERNARDO: I, therefore, request you to confirm my sentence, My lord abbot.
ABBOT: My heart is filled with sorrow... but I can find no reason to contest the just sentence of the Holy Inquisition. BERNARDO: And you, William of Baskerville?
WILLIAM: Yes. He is guilty. Guilty of having, in his youth misinterpreted the message of the Ggspels. And he is guilty of having confused the love of poverty with the blind destruction of wealth and property.
But, my lord abbot, he is innocent of the crimes that have bathed your abbey in blood. For brother Remigio cannot read Greek. And this entire mystery hinges on the theft and possession of a book written in Greek and hidden in some secret part of the library.
BERNARDO: Since the verdict of the Inquisition has been disputed by Brother William, we are obliged to extract the prisoner's confession to murder.
Take him to the forge and show him the instruments.
REMIGIO: I'll confess anything you want, but don't torture me. I can't live through it, not like Salvatore.
BERNARDO: Very well. Why did you kill them?
REMIGIO: Why? I don't know why.
BERNARDO: Because you were inspired by the devil?
REMIGIO: Yes. That's it. I was inspired by the devil. I am inspired by the devil! Adrammelech, Lucifer, I summon you, lords of hell! Alastor! Azazel!
BERNARDO: The shepherd has done his duty, and the infected sheep must now be consigned to the purifying flame. WILLIAM: You may burn Brother Remigio... but you willl not put a stop to the crimes being committed in this abbey! Other monks will meet their deaths here... and they also will have black fingers and black tongues!
MICHELE: Your Eminence, I beg of you. We Franciscans are as appalled as you by Brother William's outburst.
ENVOY: Again, we have seen that your theories protect heretics and lead to murder. The debate is concluded.
MICHELE: No.
BERNARDO: It seems Brother William of Baskerville has relapsed into the errors of which he was formerly purged. Having sought yet again to shield a heretic from just punishment by the Inquisition, he will accompany me to Avignon for confirmation of my sentence by His Holiness Pope John.
WILLIAM: I'm right.
ADSO (V.O.): If only I could find the book and prove that Bernardo Gui was wrong! But the Antichrist was victorious once more... and nothing seemed to be able to hinder him further.
JORGE: When the pyres are lighted tonight... let the flames purify each of us in his own heart.
Let us return to what was and ever should be the office of this abbey. The preservation of knowledge. "Preservation," I say, not "search for." Because there is no progress in the history of knowledge... merely a continuous and sublime recapitulation.
Let us now praise the Almighty that the bloody-eyed and cloven-hoofed Antichrist has been purged from our sacred precincts and our monastery has returned to peace.
(librarian falls)
MONK: The fifth trumpet!
MALACHIA: It had the power of a thousand scorpions! He told me.
MONK 1: Who told you?
MONK 2: His tongue is black.
MONK 3: His fingers as black as pitch just as Brother William foretold! WILLIAM: Adso!
ADSO: It's brother Malachia, Father. JORGE: Malachia?
ADSO: Yes, Father, yes. JORGE: Dear God! Not Malachia! Will it never end? Malachia.
MONK: Lord Bernardo, William of Baskerville was right. He said...
BERNARDO: Yes! He knew! Just as I, too, would have known, had I been the murderer! Find William of Baskerville!
INT. LIBRARY
ADSO: But we still don't know how to open the mirror!
WILLIAM: Perhaps by pressing the first and seventh letters of the word "four."
ADSO: But "four" only has four letters!
WILLIAM: In Latin, Adso. "Quatuor," remember? The inscription above the mirror?
ADSO: But we have to press above an idol.
WILLIAM: Not "idolum," as in the Latin, but "eidolon," as in the Greek. Meaning "image" or "reflection." Our own reflection! ADSO: This way, master!
WILLIAM: No, this way, Adso.
EXT. (bell ringing)
(Salvatore, Remigio and the girl are led to the stake)
INT. LIBRARY
ADSO: Here, Q. Q and R. WILLIAM: Pray God we're not mistaken.
(the door opens) WILLIAM: Come.
(finds someone there) Good evening, Venerable Jorge.
JORGE: I've been expecting you these several days past, William.
WILLIAM: You must have flown to this chamber to have reached it ahead of us.
JORGE: You have discovered many things since your arrival at this abbey... but the short route through the labyrinth is not among them. So now, what is it that you want? WILLIAM: I want to see the book in Greek you said was never written. A book entirely devoted to comedy, which you hate as much as you hate laughter.
I want to see what is probably the sole surviving copy of the second book of the Poetics of Aristotle.
JORGE: William, what a magnificent librarian you would have been!
JORGE: Here is your well-earned reward.
WILLIAM: Read it. Leaf through its secrets.
JORGE: You have won.
EXT. THE STAKES - NIGHT Close, now!
(manks in a torchlight procession)
INT. LIBRARY
WILLIAM: "We shall now discuss the way comedy stimulates all the like and ridiculous by using vulgar persons and taking pleasure from their defects."
JORGE: Carry on, William. Read it, read it!
ADSO: Master, please, we must hurry.
JORGE: If the light is too dim for you, give it to the boy. I'm sure he can read it.
WILLIAM: I would not want my faithful pupil in turn your poisoned pages, not without the protection of a glove, such as I am wearing. (Jorge overturns the desk)
WILLIAM: The door, quick! Before he shuts us in! Push! Stay, stay!
(cont'd) Venerable brother, there are many books that speak of comedy. Why does this one fill you with such fear?
JORGE: Because it is by Aristotle.
WILLIAM: Adso, this way.
EXT. THE STAKES BERNARDO: Do you, Salvatore, renounce the devil and embrace Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?
SALVATORE: (singing)
BERNARDO: Do you, Remigio de Varagine, renounce the devil and embrace Jesus...
REMIGIO: What for? It's better die fast than to spend the rest of life in prison! The devil I renounce is you, Bernardo Gui!
BERNARDO: (to the girl) Do you renounce the devil and embrace Jesus Christ as your lord and Savior?
INT. LIBRARY WILLIAM: But what is so alarming about laughter?
JORGE: Laughter kills fear. And without fear, there can be no faith. Because without fear of the devil, there is no more need of God.
WILLIAM: But you will not eliminate laughter by eliminating that book.
JORGE: No, to be sure. Laughter will remain the common man's recreation... but what would happen if, because of this book learned men were to pronounce it permissible to laugh at everything? Can we laugh at God? The world would relapse into chaos. Therefore, I seal that which was not to be said and the tomb I become.
(throws his candle onto the books) WILLIAM: That's him! He was there, behind the arch! EXT. THE STAKES
(torch is put onto the stake)
SALVATORE: (singing)
MONKS: (notice the fire in the library) Look! (hurry to put out)
INT. LIBRARY WILLIAM: Adso! Adso! Adso!
ADSO: Master!
WILLIAM: Go on! I insist! Leave this place at once! I insist!
ADSO: Please, God, save him.
EXT. (peasants throng toward the stakes)
BERNARDO: Stay back. Burn the witch!
(a man picks up a stone)
BERNARDO: You dare raise your hands to the Church? Come!
ADSO: (finds Bernardo mount his horse) No! You're not going to leave! All of this your wrong doing! My master found out the murderer!
(peasants stop Bernardo's coach and try to fell it)
BERNARDO: Help me. Help me! Quick! Help me! No. No, no!
(the coach fell over the cliff)
(William holding many books appears) ADSO: Master.
WILLIAM: Adso. EXT. (William and Adso leave the abbey) (The peasant girl awaits Adso)
ADSO (V.O): I have never regretted my decision... for I learned from my master much that was wise and good and true.
When at last we parted company, he presented me with his eyeglasses. I was still young, he said, but someday they would serve me well. And, in fact, I am wearing them now on my nose as I write these lines.
Then he embraced fondly, like a father, and sent me on my way. I never saw him again, and know not what became of him... but I pray always that God received his soul and forgave the many little vanities to which he was driven by his intellectual pride.
And yet, now that I am an old, old man, I must confess that of all the faces that appear to me out of the past... the one I see most clearly is that of the girl... of whom I've never ceased to dream these many long years.
She was the only earthly love of my life... yet I never knew nor ever learned ... her name.