Bill Leavengood

As it has been two weeks since the last post, here are two more scenes from THE DARWINS where we are introduced to Captain Fitzroy and to Emma's sister, Elizabeth, As this was so much about Christianity, each character in some way represents a different kind of Christian. In Fitzroy, the fire and brimstone whose belief has been beaten into him and which he believes needs to be beaten into others. Elizabeth is one of my favorites-- the physically challenged, poor, sweet pious one who is in fact needy, manipulative, self-serving, vindictive, and self-righteous as they come.

Scene Two

Lights rise on CHARLES DARWIN, age 22, in his tiny cabin on the Beagle. Sound of wind, beams creaking, waves breaking against the hull and crew members singing above on deck.

Charles looks pale and sea sick. He is hunched over a a document he is trying to write, despite his seasickness.

                                                CHARLES

                                    “Dear Emma...”

CAPTAIN FITZROY, 26, but seeming much older, enters.

                                                FITZROY

                                    Rough seas ahead, Mr. Darwin.

                                                CHARLES

                                    “Ahead”, Captain Fitzroy?

Fitzroy chuckles.

                                                FITZROY

                                    Working?

                                                CHARLES

                                    A letter, sir.

                                                FITZROY

                                    To your sweetheart?

                                                CHARLES

                                    No, not to Miss Gray. To my cousin, sir.

                                    Emma Wedgewood. She shares my interest

                                    in natural science.

                                                FITZROY

                                    A woman interested in science?

                                                CHARLES

                                    So it seems.

Spotlight slowly fades out on a smiling Emma.

                                                CHARLES

                                    I hoped to post the letter when the Beagle

                                    docks at the Canary Islands.

                                                FITZROY

                                    There’s a cholera epidemic. They will not

                                    let us land.

                                                CHARLES

                                    When will we reach our first port?

                                                FITZROY

                                    Ten or twelve days.

JEMMA BUTTONS, a young Fuegan wearing European clothing enters with two plates of food.

                                                JEMMA

                                    Captain and Scientist dinner, sir.

                                                FITZROY

                                    Thank you. Have you met Jemma Button,

                                    Mr. Darwin?

                                                JEMMA

                                    Jemma Button, Mr. Darwin.

                                                CHARLES

                                    Jemma Button?

                                                FITZROY

                                    That’s what his people traded him to me

                                    for: a pearl button.

                                                (moves to Jemma, presenting him as if he

                                                were his prized horse)

                                    On my last voyage to Tierra Del Fuego, I brought

                                    Jemma and two other Fuegans home to England

                                    at my own expense. Gave them a proper

                                    Christian education.

                                                JEMMA

                                    Proper Christian education.

                                                FITZROY

                                    Fuegans are wonderful mimics, though

                                    I don’t think they know a jot of what

                                    they’re saying.

                                                JEMMA

                                    Scientist dinner.

Charles waves the food away.

                                                CHARLES

                                    No, thank you. You have it, Jemma.

Jemma shakes his head, sadly.

                                                JEMMA

                                    Poor, poor fellow.

But as he turns and walks out, we hear him laugh under his breath. Fitzroy takes in Charles’ pale, sickly pallor.

                                                FITZROY

                                    Have some raisins.

He offers him a sack.

                                                CHARLES

                                    I couldn’t possibly eat, sir. Not until I overcome

                                    my seasickness.

                                                FITZROY

                                    You’re prone to it, Mr. Darwin. You may

                                    die waiting. And then who would collect

                                    our specimens?

                                                (beat)

                                    Eat the damn raisins.

                                                CHARLES

                                    Thank you, sir.

                                   

Charles eats a few raisins. Fitzroy opens and drinks from a bottle of rum, all the time studying Charles’ face.

                                                FITZROY

                                    You lack character and determination.

                                                CHARLES

                                    Pardon me?

                                                FITZROY

                                    Your             snub nose... Are you not familiar

                                    with the science of physiognomy?

                                                CHARLES

                                    Ah. Yes, sir.

                                                FITZROY

                                    Your nose nearly cost you this post.

                                                CHARLES

                                    To think if my nose had been any snubbier,

                                    I could be sitting at home by a warm fire.

Fitzroy laughs.

                                                FITZROY

                                    Your father warned me you were of modest

                                    constitution.

                                                CHARLES

                                                (tries to smile)

                                    Thank you, Father.

                                                FITZROY

                                    That you cannot even bare the sight

                                    of blood.

                       

                                                CHARLES

                                    I watched him amputate the leg of

                                    a screaming child. Cured me of any

                                    desire to be a physician, which greatly

                                    displeased “Doctor Darwin”.

                                               

                                                FITZROY

                                    I wondered. When he came to pay your passage,

                                    he seemed reluctant.

                       

                                                CHARLES

                                    Father doesn’t believe “science” is a worthy

                                    occupation for a Darwin.

                                                FITZROY

                                    He said as much. Holds that you are better

                                    suited for the church.

                                                CHARLES

                                    Only so that I might have a secure

                                    post as a parson and not live off

                                    of his wealth.

                                                FITZROY

                                                (smiles)

                                    Well, the church is a worthy calling for

                                    the second son of a gentleman.

                                    I promise I shall return you to

                                    Christ’s College in good time.

                                                (Charles nods, covers his mouth

                                                as a wave of nausea hits him)

                                    Dead or alive.

                                                (Fitzroy laughs)

                                                CHARLES

                                    Thank you, sir.

                                                FITZROY

                                    You seem a well spoken young gentleman.

                                    I’m glad of it.

                                                CHARLES

                                    My father thought you had brought me along--

                                    not because you thought me any great

                                    naturalist-- but for the hope of good dinner

                                    conversation.

Charles laughs weakly, Fitzroy shrugs.

                                                FITZROY

                                    During our first hydrographic survey,

                                    I took command of the Beagle after

                                    our captain committed suicide.

                                                CHARLES

                                    Why did he?

                                                FITZROY

                                    Boredom, melancholy, loneliness?

                                    You would have to ask him. And you can’t.

                                                (smiles)

                                    Hydrograhic survey, Mr. Darwin. Mapping

                                    and measuring all the navigable

                                    waterways. It can be--... Well, conversation

                                    is important.

                                                CHARLES

                                    I see.

                                                FITZROY

                                                (beat, he sits, takes a long drink,

                                                starts removing his boots)

                                    May I confide something to you?

                                    Do you know what I believe you’ll find

                                    in the Southern extremities of the Americas?

                                                CHARLES

                                    Specimens and fossils?

                                                FITZROY

                                    Yes, among the specimens and fossils... Proof.

                                    Proof of the book of Genesis.

                                                CHARLES

                                                (excited by the idea)

                                    Yes, sir?

                                                FITZROY

                                    I expect nothing less.

                                                CHARLES

                                                (smiles, then a sudden concern)

                                    Oh... But I don’t know that I should

                                    be bold enough to make such a claim.

                                                FITZROY

                                    You must, Mr. Darwin. Think how you

                                    and we would be revered around the world.

                                    “Keepers of the Faith.” Saints, perhaps...

                                    I am depending on you.

The wind outside howls loudly and the beams creak. Fitzroy and Charles look heavenward, Fitzroy rises, takes a last drink and corks the bottle.

                                                FITZROY

                                    Eat your raisins.

Charles urgently returns to his letter. Fitzroy crosses to his hammock.

                                                FITZROY

                                    I don’t know when you’ll have an opportunity

                                    to post a letter, Mr. Darwin.

                                                CHARLES

                                    Nevertheless, sir, I would like to write it.

Fitzroy nods and gets into his hammock. While Fitzroy sleeps, Charles writes.

                                                CHARLES

                                    Dear Emma... I have made a terrible mistake...

Charles pauses. He quietly tears the strip of writing off the top of the paper. Dropping a few raisins in his mouth, he begins again.

                                                CHARLES

                                    My Dear Emma... Salutations from the high seas and

                                    the S. S. Beagle where you may tell Uncle Josiah

                                    and my father that your favorite cousin shares

                                    a cabin with no less than Captain Fitzroy himself.

Charles steps downstage as the lights fade on the cabin, and Emma appears on the opposite side of the stage in another spotlight. The conceit will be repeated throughout the voyage.

                                                CHARLES

                                    The Captain believes that we may find fossil proof

                                    of the Great Flood in South America. Can you

                                    imagine how exalted I would be by you and all

                                    England then? The men are hearty lads who work

                                    vigorously under the captain’s...

                                                (glances at Fitzroy with some concern)

                                    ...firm hand and naval discipline... though I

                                    must say that the crew’s quarters are not so

                                    grand as mine. I miss England and I pine

                                    for Miss Gray. Although she does not listen so

                                    closely nor believe so genuinely in

                                    my notions as you do, dear Emma...

Charles gags on the raisins. He stops, willing himself not to get sick.

                                                CHARLES (cont’d)

                                    Yours truly, Charles.

Charles retreats back to the cabin and, in the dim lighting, carefully puts the letter away. He gets in his hammock, gets out again, removes the top drawers where his clothes are stored so that he has room for his feet. Lights dim to a spotlight on Charles as he manages to settle in an awkward position, and close his eyes. Just then Fitzroy starts to snore loudly and Charles’ eyes open. 

He lies there, staring out, reacting to Emma’s words.

                                                EMMA

                                    My Dear Charley. Where are you, I wonder?

                                    None of us have heard.  Word reached us there

                                    is an epidemic of cholera in the Canary Islands

                                    and there are many dead. If you are one of them,

                                    please be so good as to write and let us know.

                                    My father--your uncle-- believes you may meet 

                                    up with cannibals. Your father-- my uncle--

                                    fears that your will be drawn away

                                    from your Christian foundations by

                                    consorting with sailors. I assured them both

                                    that it is the sailors and savages who will

                                    instead benefit from meeting you.

Spotlight fades on out on Charles, as the scene changes in the dim light behind Emma.

                                                EMMA (cont’d)

                                    England is the same. Maer House is the same.

                                    My Fanny is the same. My sister, Fanny,

                                    I mean, not--

                                                (to herself)

                                    Oh, dear, scratch that out.

                                                (resuming letter)

                                    I recently had the pleasure of seeing your

                                    intended, Miss Gray, who remarked that she believed

                                    you cared more for beetles than you did

                                    for her. How little I feel she understands you.

                                                Scene Four

The laundry room of the Wedgewood estate.

                                                EMMA (cont’d)

                                    I have volunteered to teach Bible Lessons

                                    here in the laundry of Maer Hall

                                    along with my sister Elizabeth, God Bless her.

                                    Sundays can be very long days.

ELIZABETH WEDGEWOOD enters. She is dwarfish in stature with a pronounced curvature of the spine but pretty of face. The sisters put away books, papers and pencils used in their lessons. Elizabeth is not slow witted, she is just very needy.

                                                ELIZABETH

                                    Did I not teach Noah’s Ark well?

                                                EMMA

                                    Oh, yes.

                                                ELIZABETH

                                    I thought I taught it very well.

                                                EMMA

                                    You did, Elizabeth.

                                                ELIZABETH

                                    I made up the part that it was larger than

                                    St. Paul’s Cathedral.  Do you think that was

                                    all right?

                                                EMMA

                                    I don’t believe there was any harm.

                                                ELIZABETH

                                    I taught it well,  I think... Weren’t the children

                                    darling?

                                                EMMA

                                    Like angels... Ill-behaved, screaming angels.

                                                ELIZABETH

                                                (disapprovingly)

                                    Oh.

                                                EMMA

                                    You know that I adore them, Elizabeth.

                                                ELIZABETH

                                    Hm. They asked me something about God.

                                    I don’t know that I answered properly.

                                                EMMA

                                    What was their question?

                                                ELIZABETH

                                    They asked why they always see you and Fanny

                                    together, while they only see the two of us

                                    together for Bible lessons.

                                                EMMA

                                    Which child asked that?

                                                ELIZABETH

                                    I don’t recall. A boy, I’m certain.

                                    I said that our family calls you and Fanny

                                    the Doveleys, you’re so close and kind and dear.

           

                                                EMMA

                                    No kinder or dearer than you, Elizabeth.

                                                ELIZABETH

                                    And beautiful.

                                                EMMA

                                    Oh. I don’t think--

                                                ELIZABETH

                                    Not Fanny in truth-- she’s quite plain--

                                    but you are so lovely.

                                                EMMA

                                    The children asked a question about God?

                                                ELIZABETH

                                    They wondered why Our Lord had not made me

                                    as you and Fanny are... as we are all sisters.

                                                EMMA

                                    Oh.... Well, children are apt to ask such

                                    questions.

                                                ELIZABETH

                                    Yes, I know... What would you have answered?

                                                EMMA

                                                (pause)

                                    That God knows better than we do. That He loves us

                                    all equally and completely.

                                                ELIZABETH

                                    I should have said that. You’re so smart.

                                    I told them that there was some greater reward for

                                    me in Heaven... Was that wrong to presume?

                                                EMMA

                                                (carefully)

                                    No. Although--

                                                ELIZABETH

                                    Knowing that is such a comfort. That all the

                                    rewards of Heaven will be mine and others’

                                    rewards will not be so grand.

                                                EMMA

                                    I believe it’s entirely possible, Elizabeth.

                                    I’ll finish clearing up here, if you’d like

                                    to go on to lunch....

                                                ELIZABETH

                                                (hugs her)

                                    You are so kind and devoted to me, Emma.

                                    I thank our Dear Lord for you. 

                                                (expectant pause)

                                                EMMA

                                    I thank the Lord for you, too, Elizabeth.

Lights fade out. We hear “Land ho!” in the darkness and the sounds of small waves breaking on the shore.