Desperate Romantics s01e06 Episode Script

'Their honeymoon over, Lizzie and Rossetti prepare to spend 'the rest of their lives together in their fine, new house.
'A proposal based on laudanum and the colour of the bride's hair 'has now to grow into a marriage based on love and constancy.
'All thoughts of other lovers cast aside.
'Denied a honeymoon and cast aside himself, 'Hunt's thoughts dwell on God and Annie Miller in equal measure.
'For Millais, the honeymoon is never over.
'Now married, now rich, now acclaimed, he has everything 'Everything except the brotherhood they once shared.
' You have a housekeeper? Effie and I abhor the idea of servants.
She is more like a family friend.
And it would be impossible to run a house this size without one.
We pay her in excess of what I believe to be the usual rate.
Well, that's all right, then.
Johnny had a big idea while you were away.
I can see that.
Johnny has a proposal which I believe will excite you all! My capital idea is this.
I feel that our success has taken us apart somewhat.
Well, I for one, miss our previous brotherly love.
I miss our mutual critiques.
I miss us boys.
I miss us.
Our former, idealistic selves.
If you ever miss the poverty, feel free to drop in and see us.
You are hardly poor.
But since now two of our number are settled into matrimonial bliss and Hunt is surely not beyond finding a wife.
I need to wrestle Annie back from the arms of that toff.
Really? We have this large, and beautiful house and Johnny and I think that it would be delicious if we could all live here togetherunder the same roof.
An artistic colony.
That's beautifully put, Wombat! So what do you say? The gang back together? The reunion! And Fred, as our chronicler extraordinaire.
Perhaps one day, I too shall find a wife.
Miracles do happen, I suppose! No, that's a top-rate idea.
Are you quite certain you can change Annie's mind? Fred will deliver a heartfelt plea.
Excellent.
Count us amongst your number.
The revolutionaries are back.
Effie, call for the girl and tell her to fetch the best sherry.
BELL RINGS How many times? We're married! Our marriage doesn't change your personality.
It does not change the fact that you're attracted to Annie Miller and she to you! I am appalled that you should trust me so little.
Absolutely appalled! Why would I not trust you in a house full of models, hm? Let me think.
.
I swear on my life that Annie Miller has no hold over me.
She has no place in my heart.
Any feelings I've had for her are as dead as yesterday's candles.
I have one obsession, and that's you.
You are enough for me.
My God, you are enough for any man! SHE LAUGHS 'When do I see thee the most, beloved one? 'When in the light, the spirits of mine eyes 'Before thy face, their altar, solemnize.
' Fred, you are a better friend than Hunt deserves.
I am simply acting the messenger.
But I do think this is a genuine attempt at reconciliation.
Which I am afraid is what we in polite society would consider neither appropriate nor desirable.
So he has stood by you, then, Lord Rosterley? No.
He has not.
Twat! He has become engaged to a woman from a more fitting background.
I'm sorry.
You did not deserve that.
So you are in a position to accept Hunt's offer, then? Would it be such a bad thing? I think it is neither appropriate nor desirable.
Annie.
Annie, this is me - Fred.
You don't need to pretend! And if nothing else, it would mean you and I could be friends again.
Unless you WANT to offend me, Fred, then I suggest you change the topic of conversation.
I see.
Well, goodbye, then.
Goodbye.
Did you forget something? I emphatically did.
I forgot the most important thing of all.
And I have been forgetting the most important thing of all for most of my thus far sad, little life.
Do I make myself clear? Not really.
I need to speak to you from my heart.
I need to speak to you of my feelings.
Is that compatible with the requisite distance that a lady and gentleman should try to maintain on all social occasions? Annie Miller, will you do me the great, great honour of marrying me? SHE LAUGHS Oh, Fred! The things you will do to cheer a girl up! Annie.
Annie.
I am in complete earnest about this.
And what about Lizzie? I can never have Lizzie and you can never trust Hunt, so we're both second choice, and that equals things up.
I cannot marry a man who loves another woman quite as ardently as you love Lizzie.
So you overlook me for Hunt, then you overlook me for Rossetti, then Lord Rosterley and now you face penury and you still will not settle for me.
Can I sink any lower in your estimation? You have been a good friend to me, Fred.
And if a girl got married because of the niceness of a chap, then, yes, you'd be the first in line.
But they don't, so you're not.
I snagged a lord once, and I intend to snag one again.
Sorry.
'Nobody could say that I was not a patient man.
'That I had not bided my time.
'But with her humiliating words, Annie turned me against tact and gentleness.
'From now on I would tell the truth, 'whoever I hurt.
' DOG BARKS Bird for sale.
Get out! Queen Guinevere? It was your poem that gave me the idea.
She has the look, she has the hair.
Surely your poem took her as its inspiration.
Jane did in fact sit for William, and it was most unsatisfactory.
Ha, painting.
I could not paint Jane, so I loved her instead.
I've already taken the liberty of doing a few preliminary sketches.
Why would you draw her on a smallcloth, food spills - tuck it in, damn you! - serviette? It was all I had to hand at the wedding.
You made sketches of William's sweetheart at your own wedding? It was during Lizzie's father's speech.
It was either that or stab myself to death with a cake fork.
I tried to do that once.
There is a certain way the light catches her throat.
Stuck in my shoulder.
The, er, fork in question.
So I have your blessing if Jane agrees to sit for me? No woman or man needs asking to sit for Rossetti.
No man or woman needs asking that! Excellent.
Come to my studio tomorrow and we will make a start.
I still have the scars.
This is a wrought-iron cage.
It's a fortune I'll take anything for it! BIRD TWEETS So I really did buy it, then? You really did.
I bought it for you.
I thought you had a fondness for bullfinch.
I do.
But that's a canary, you dullard.
A canary? A canary.
Really? Does that at least earn me a sly fondle? I'd love nothing more.
But Ruskin awaits.
I have been back for three days.
He will be thinking that I have forgotten him.
BIRD TWEETS I love birdsong.
It is the most lovely thing.
Do you not think so, William? I think perhaps Jane is hinting for a bird of her own, William.
Ah, yes.
Yes, of course.
How much would you take for it? I'm not entirely sure what it's worth.
I'd been drinking.
Oh, yes.
Never mix drink and caged wings Beaks Songs Birds! As the saying goes.
Let me just Ah! Ah! For God's sake, William, I was only moving her head.
No, no, no, no.
Your bedroom, you should dress entirely with Lizzie's paintings and the living room with your own! I shall get to it at once! Very well.
My dear Lizzie, how lovely to see you.
And you, and you.
You were expecting me, were you not? I think you should come in.
I don't understand.
Whose are all these? Surely you did not expect our relationship to carry on unaffected by your new status? It would be inappropriate now for anyone other than your husband to support you.
Gabriel cannot support me.
We can hardly afford the rent on our new lodgings.
Well, I will continue to buy Gabriel's work.
Indeed, I think he never draws better than when he's drawing you.
So this is your desire.
That I retreat to modelling and cease our arrangement.
I have a student in Rose.
And you have Gabriel, so therefore no longer have any need of me.
William tells me you met at the theatre.
That is one way of putting it.
I was working.
Oh! So you're an actress? No, I was selling flowers.
Violets I'd picked from the roadside.
Nothing as grand as an actress.
So you consider an actress grand? I consider any fate beyond the gallows grand.
I don't think you'd ever be hanged.
You would be pardoned on account of your beauty.
Is that how you think justice should work? Absolutely.
DOOR OPENS, SHOUTING I'm sure William will put an end to your poverty.
A proposal is surely just around the corner.
I think love might have to grow before that.
I suspect it was love at first sight for William.
For William.
Not for me.
"Kneel down, oh, love, kneel down," he said.
"And sprinkle the dusty snow over my head.
" That's wonderful.
Perhaps in future you might want to use the time that Jane is sitting for me to work on your poetry.
And your designs.
Ned showed me some of your designs.
That is where I feel your future really lies.
You do trust me, don't you? With my life.
I'm glad of it.
Lizzie! Back so soon? LIZZIE GROANS What is it? Ruskin no longer wishes to mentor me! I have lost Ruskin! No! Is that possible? By marrying you, I have lost Ruskin! Rose La Touche? The girl from the wedding? His new pupil.
I'll visit Ruskin later and change his mind.
You're a good man.
Husband mine.
What is it? The prophylactic.
It's around here somewhere.
Perhaps we don't need it anymore.
What? Perhaps now we are married, we don't need it.
But if you were to fall pregnant.
.
Your work I have no work now that Ruskin has dropped me.
And perhaps that was fate.
Do you not wish to have a child with me? Of course.
Of course I do.
I beg of you, John, if only for the sake of Lizzie's sanity.
Please resume your interest in her work.
I will always remain interested in her work.
But perhaps it will not be my principal interest from now on.
Then man to man, could I beg of you? For the sake of MY sanity? I have a new pupil, as you can see.
Miss La Touche? Surely you can not be serious? Rose, would you leave us alone for a moment, please? So How did you discover your latest protegee? Her mother wrote to me and asked me to give her lessons in drawing and painting.
A mother offers up her young daughter when she learns of the peculiar circumstances of your divorce? What precisely is your meaning? Oh, it's of no matter.
I can see that you have no intention of seeing sense over Lizzie so I'm simply wasting my time.
No, I insist.
I insist that you explain the implication of your last remark.
I speak as someone who loves you, John.
And who owes you a great debt of gratitude.
Without you and your support I've discovered that when a friend lists your good qualities, then an insult is sure to follow.
You can see it, John, surely? You did not consummate your marriage with your wife, and people will speculate forever about the reason for that.
And when they see that your companion is little more than a child, then they may well conclude that you are attracted to children in a way that is altogether inappropriate.
You must desist from judging the whole of the human race by your own sordid standards.
I am merely saying what people will think.
And how long have you cared what people think, Gabriel? I thought you were a rebel.
Do you like Rose La Touche? Let me tell you what I like, Gabriel.
I like the company of children and of young people.
And I like art.
I love art.
And ideas, and nature.
And as for the rest, the inappropriate appetites, the sexual desire It's not something I feel.
And because of that, I come under constant suspicion, and am the target of the most vicious gossip and speculation, both from strangers, and even now from my friends.
I'm sorry.
Consider your own life, Gabriel, led by lust and cravings from one woman to the next.
Never settling, never satisfied.
Distracted from your true vocation by the chance of some sordid, moist, grunting encounter or another.
Who's to say my grunting encounters aren't my true vocation? Look at your own life and tell me who is the damaged man in this room.
Who is the man who has no control over his feelings? I have always defended you against the most rank and sordid accusations.
That does not give you the right to judge me.
Me? Driven by lust? How dare he? Outrageous slur.
I think lust within a marriage is a holy thing, Gabriel.
Which leads me to this.
Morris, if you wouldn't mind What's the matter? Why don't you ask our very own Jeremiah over there? What? Annie means to marry anyone but Hunt.
Fred, you could have expressed that more delicately.
Fred has taken it upon himself to tell the truth at all times, regardless of other people's feelings, like an Old Testament prophet.
I have devised an elaborate colour code for rooms and shared areas.
Do you think I am driven by lust, Fred? I think that we have all been distracted by lust, but you have let it be your leading light, your rudder, your pole star.
Effie has devised an elegant rota for meals shared and meals eaten alone.
We need our intimacy hours, after all.
Morris, Ned You have known me a briefer time than these boys and might not have your judgement queered by bitterness and envy.
Do not ask me, Gabriel.
I really do not have any knowledge of physical intimacy.
Hunt, since you will no longer be bringing a wife, would you mind terribly being based in the summerhouse? What? Neither of you? You forget, we were destined for a different calling before we met you.
In the spire Pews Vicar Church.
Are you seriously telling me you haven't had the pleasure of Miss Burden yet? When left alone, we play hide and seek.
But your poem? About "spraying dusty snow" onto your lover's head.
That waswhat? About snow.
What else? Oh, boys.
It's time we visited the Gardens.
So, looking for company, boys? Surely you're not proposing that William betrays Jane? Do you like to eat meals with Jane? Yes.
Then do you not betray her every time you dine alone? An analogy that does a gross disservice to your intelligence, Gabriel.
Not worthy.
You will leave the Gardens happier men.
You, sir, are married.
I know.
And to a woman I love.
My motives are just as much a mystery to me as they are to you.
ButI can't stop.
You speak of love as though it is a mighty thing and yet you would betray it for .
.
stray tit! Perhaps we overrate the importance of sex, and underrate the strength of love.
I think, perhaps, William, we should be getting home.
Annie? Annie! Annie! Annie! Fancy some fun, sir? Annie! Annie! What are you doing here?! Are you working again? I am working.
Would you care to sit for me? No, Gabriel.
I do not think that would be an at all good idea.
Come on, Annie, is it such a repellent thought? You married Lizzie.
You married the poor girl.
So the least you can do is to try to be a husband.
So it's come to this, has it? Lectured on morality by a whore? Who better than a whore? She sees men for what they are every day of her life! Go and see Hunt, then! He adores you! Surely Hunt is better than this! Fancy a grope? Thank you, ma'am.
What are you doing? Writing.
Read it to me.
I have barely begun.
And it's just a silly thing about you and the canary.
Read it.
She fluted with her mouth as when one sips, And waved her golden head, brave head and kind, Outside his cage close to the window-blind, Till her sweet bird, with little chirps and dips Piped low of her sweet companionships.
And when he stopped, she took some seed, I vow, And fed him from her rosy tongue, which now Peeped as a piercing bud between her lips.
And you wrote that just for me? Just for you.
What have you been saying to William about me? I always tell him you are a stunner and no mistake that he's lucky to have you.
Well, he's taken you at your word.
He's asked me to marry him.
Has he now? What should I say to him? Do you love him? I love him.
He's rich.
He's kind.
He's gentle.
He is loud and he is fat and he is hairy.
Spoken like a lover.
I want you to tell me to marry him.
That's not my business.
I think it is.
Because I think it is you that I truly love.
Oh.
I see.
I see.
KNOCK ON DOOR Rossetti said that I should come to see you.
Annie.
I can barely believe you've come back to me.
I prayed and it seems yet again God has answered my prayers.
As you may have heard, Lord Rosterley broke off our engagement.
The man is a toff and a rake.
The two things I hate most in the world.
A gentleman's prerogative, as I have discovered, to make promises he has no intention of keeping.
Not this time.
We will be married immediately.
No.
No, we will not.
I have grown up these past few months and I know better than to believe a promise from you or any man.
But why are you here, if it isn't to accept my proposal? I have been reading your old love letters.
They are very prettily put.
I don't know about that.
Full of declarations of love and very vivid descriptions of my secret places and your lustful preferences.
Such detail the colour, the shape, the texture Enough to make a lady blush.
As you know, I was and indeed, am very taken with your secret places.
And I was thinking, as my tears fell onto your pretty letters, I was thinking that now you are famous and respectable, it would be a terrible and embarrassing thing if those letters were to fall into the wrong hands.
Why would they fall into the wrong hands? That's just it.
They needn't, need they? And for a small consideration, I can make sure of that by destroying them.
A small consideration? What do you mean, a small? Are you blackmailing me? I'm just playing the hand I've been dealt, Hunty.
Why would any of these galleries be interested in me? I have excellent contacts in all of them.
I made Hunt an absolute fortune.
And I can do the same for you if you will just let me.
You are very sweet, Fred, but Gabriel and I are going to concentrate on starting a family.
Starting a family? You and Gabriel? Is that so strange for man and wife? I suppose not.
I think it would be a dreadful mistake.
Fred! You are a sweet man, and for that reason I shall choose not to take offence.
I would risk offending you if it would dissuade you from the folly of having a child with Gabriel.
What has got into you? I have decided to be honest from now on.
And I honestly think that Gabriel cannot be relied upon as a father, or a husband.
Does he have a lover? Do you know something? What is it, Fred? I cannot help but suspect that he is planning to have an affair with Jane Burden.
William Morris' sweetheart? She is poor.
She is beautiful.
She is in awe of Gabriel and she belongs to someone else.
All qualities which Gabriel finds irresistible.
I am only telling you this because I love you, Lizzie, and because I fear for you.
And because you do not deserve such treatment.
Dear Fred.
You are a good friend.
I cannot believe what you have just told me.
I will not believe it! It is your loyalty that makes me love you even more.
Fred! Poor, lovely, loyal Fred.
What are you doing? My God, what are you doing? I am sorry.
Just go! I thought that you wanted me to kiss you.
After softening me up with tales of Gabriel's infidelity! How dare you! Go! Please go! Please leave! HE SHRIEKS Tea, Gabriel? Yes.
Thank you.
Pass your cup, Charlotte.
Are you well, Lizzie? I am quite well.
Just a little tired.
You will find that the first few months of marriage do that to a woman, Lizzie.
Familiarity blunts desire sooner or later.
Where did you get these dainties from again, Gabriel? It's a little bakery called The Golden Door.
They are delicious.
Aren't they, Mr Siddal? I prefer more masculine confectionary.
A Staffordshire oat.
I have some news! I am taking a break from my art for a while.
Really? But you were doing so very well.
Your artistic nature flourishing and revealing your Gabriel and I are going to have a baby.
A baby! A baby? A coming together of two great bloodlines.
Great day! Great day! Congratulations, Gabriel.
Thank you.
What an enchanting surprise! Indeed it is.
My clever girl, come on now.
Put some sugar in your tea.
You need to get some colour in your cheeks.
Are you COMPLETELY insane? We are going to have a child one day.
One day? With God's will, but you're not with child? Are you? I am not.
So why perform that little charade in there just now? Why humiliate yourself in such a way? I wanted to demonstrate that I made the right decision in marrying you.
By making up a stupid lie? I have learnt at the feet of the Master, have I not? What on earth has possessed you? What's the matter with you? Why can't you just be happy? You block me at every turn! The only thing you consistently encourage in me is my use of laudanum! I married you, didn't I? Because you feared I was dying, We both know that! I married you to save your life.
And that isn't romantic enough for you! You married me to save your reputation, not my life! You can't even be happy you finally managed to trap me in matrimony! Trapped? Is that how you see it? Caged like that damned canary! No.
You're not like the canary.
The canary is entertaining.
I'm not staying here to argue.
I am going.
I will see you at home later.
Where are you going? To see Jane Burden? What are you talking about? I can see the way you look at her.
She is low-born, she is besotted with the world of art, she has long flowing hair and could pass for a medieval maid.
She reminds me a lot of me, before you beat the life out of me with your fake love and your false promises.
Would any man blame me for seeking a lover right now? Would God blame me? Let him strike me down if he does! You see? You have even driven God away.
Don't forget the laudanum for Miss Burden! She'll need it! By God, she'll need it! So what did you do? What else was I to do? I bought the letters.
She took the money.
I do not believe that Annie would be so underhand.
She deserved some compensation for the way I treated her.
If she had merely asked I would have given her the money.
Fred Walters! Why did you tell Lizzie I was having an affair with Jane Burden? Because I thought it most likely.
You thought it most likely? Well, thank you for ruining my marriage on the basis of a scurrilous lie! When Effie and I have a tiff we make friends by devising new nicknames for each other.
There is only one man ruining your marriage, Gabriel, and that is you.
Effie likes to call me Mr Crumpet.
I wish I had never met Lizzie damned Siddal! And why did I meet her? Because of this man! Thiswriter! Surely you cannot blame Fred for your current malaise.
Can I not? She ruined my life and he introduced me to her! It is not your life that stands in ruins as a consequence of your meeting each other! You prick! Think about the colony.
We can resolve our differences! And she is the fairest! The cleverest! The gentlest! The funniest.
And you treat her like something that clings to you! You have been visited by an angel and all you can do is pick at her wings.
You are right, of course.
She is the best woman in the world.
And I can't see it.
Why is it that I can only appreciate her when somebody else wants her? I don't think that Fred said he wanted Lizzie, exactly.
Did you Fred? I did.
Actually.
Because I do want her, I do! Not sure that's the wisest statement to make in the circumstances.
This man! This .
.
"Good friend"! This prophet in the wilderness is coming home with me right now! Gabriel, I am really not certain this is such a good idea.
Don't desert me now, Fred! Damn it all, Gabriel! I made an inappropriate approach to Lizzie just yesterday.
What? I tried to kiss your wife, Gabriel.
And she slapped me hard for my pains.
And now I expect you to do the same.
You tried to kiss her? I did.
And she slapped you.
She did.
Of course you did! Why wouldn't you? You love her and I keep implying that I don't! Which is why you must come home with me right now and give Lizzie the chance to choose.
What? I'll declare my love and then you'll declare yours, and then Lizzie can make a choice.
But you are her husband.
I want to see her well again, Fred.
I want to see her happy.
And if that means sacrificing her to another man, so be it.
She is clearly sleeping.
Perhaps we should come back tomorrow.
No.
We must do this now.
Don't move.
I will find a lamp.
Wha? I told you not to move! You keep bumping into things.
Go and get help! Go! Go and get help! Run for God's sake! Oh! You do not die! You dare not die! Please don't die! Please, Lizzie, please! Oh, Sid.
Oh, Lizzie.
Please, please.
Please don't die.
Please.
Lizzie, please, please, please, please don't die! Please! Lead the way, sir.
WE'RE IN HERE! Please save her.
You've got to save her! Come away, Gabriel.
The doctor is here.
Let the Doctor do his work, Gabriel.
Please, sir, please.
GABRIEL SOBS Oh, please, I can't, I'm sorry! No! NO! Drink this.
It will help see you through the next hour.
I don't want to see through the next hour.
You mustn't say this.
I killed her.
She was weak.
She took too much laudanum.
You mustn't blame yourself.
That isn't what she thought.
I know that isn't what she thought.
Gabriel, you are tired.
You are ill with grief.
You're not making sense.
She left a note, Fred.
She left a note.
She took her own life.
No, no, no.
Cannot be right.
Cannot be right.
Oh, darling, my poor darling.
A terrible thing.
I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
Were you there? When she died.
No.
Fred and I were out.
We returned, and found her.
Found her? On the floor.
She had passed out.
That is to say, she had passed away on the floor.
Where were you? Why were you not with her? I had business to attend to.
She died alone.
You let her die alone! But the Doctor thinks the laudanum She would not have known any pain.
The laudanum? She had a weakness.
Yes.
She had a weakness.
Did you tell them about the note? Their hearts were already broken.
They have a right to know the truth.
I know what you think of me, Fred.
I know you think I'm merely protecting my own reputation.
But if word gets out about this, it will be her reputation that suffers the lasting damage.
It will be her name that will be disgraced.
If you don't tell them, Gabriel, then I will.
I can't stop you.
Gabriel I'm sorry, I have no words.
Let God be comfort to you.
Thank you.
My poor friend, my poor brother, my poor brother.
Jane.
There's been a change in my circumstances.
I knew it.
I knew you would lay eyes on Lizzie and be overcome with guilt or whatever passes for conscience, and she would look at you with those watery eyes and hook you back in once more to a life of obedience and misery She's dead.
Lizzie's dead.
She died last night.
That is the change of circumstances to which I refer.
Oh.
Oh! I am sorry.
How? The doctor thinks she accidentally took an excess of laudanum.
I wish now I had not said those things.
They are no worse than the things I said to her very face.
So don't reproach yourself.
My poor Gabriel! I have come to ask you one thing.
Indeed to beg of you.
Marry William.
You still wish me to marry him even though you are free? He's a fine and loyal fellow.
And far better for you than the wretched dog you see before you now.
(Oh, Gabriel, oh, Gabriel!) The pain will fade, I promise you.
Charlotte.
I am sorry for your loss.
Thank you, Fred.
I wanted to say that I feel responsible, in some way for Lizzie becoming a part of a world where I sat in this room and made solemn promises that I would look after her.
Lizzie would never have been happy as a hat shop girl.
She never fitted in the circumstances in which she found herself.
Reason for that.
Please, Mr Siddal.
Aristocracy in her blood.
Oh, for God's sake! It's true enough and you know it! I know no such thing! No such thing! I will no longer endure your laughable and pathetic claims to be descended from greatness.
You are not great! We are not great! You're a knife sharpener with a shop and out of respect for our dead daughter, can we stop pretending we'll ever be anything else? Can I just ask that of you? She's Well, she's Grief and such.
It's, it's different for me, you know, with my background and history.
If you will excuse me.
I had not intended to make a painful situation worse.
Did Lizzie kill herself? I don't know how I or anyone else would know that.
If Lizzie killed herself, She would have left a note.
She would have left some sort of message for me.
The laudanum had taken a grip of her soul I am talking of her intentionally taking her own life.
Will you tell me? Did she leave a note? Will you tell me the truth about the sister I loved and cherished, and warned against her terrible marriage to that terrible man? Lizzie and Gabriel were born to be together.
Neither of us cares much for that fact but I am afraid it is true.
Did.
She.
Kill.
Herself? No.
She did not.
There was no note.
'Rossetti was right.
'He is always right.
'I lied to protect Charlotte, not Rossetti.
' This is her picture as she was.
It seems a thing to wonder on, As though mine image in the glass Should tarry when myself am gone.
"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.
"World without end.
Amen.
" Amen.
And now, Lizzie's sister, Charlotte, would like to read a poem that Lizzie wrote.
Lizzie gave this to me a few days before she died.
It is, I believe, a poem about her and Gabriel and the love they shared.
"Oh, never weep for love that's dead, "Since love is seldom true "But changes his fashion from blue to red, "From brightest red to blue, "And love was born to an early death and is so seldom true.
"If the merest dream of love were true, "Then sweet, we should be in heaven, "And this is only earth, my dear, "Where true love is not given.
" "The Lord bless her and keep her, "The Lord make his face to shine upon her and be gracious unto her and give her peace.
"Amen.
" No.
She's not dead.
Oh, for God's sake, can't you see? She is not at peace because she thinks I did not love her! Gabriel.
Please.
Gabriel! She comes to me all the time, William! Her ghost comes to me! Gabriel.
(My darling!) I wrote these for you, my love.
So they must rest with you.
GABRIEL SOBS Why could I not have loved her with this intensity when she was alive? There is a lack in you, Gabriel.
Perhaps you are right.
You always want women you cannot have.
Lizzie's death makes her utterly and completely unattainable.
And so now she is dead she owns your heart.
When did you get so wise? It is Effie.
She tells me I'm clever and it makes me clever.
She's been good for you.
You must cherish her.
You cannot be alone, Gabriel.
You must move in immediately with me and Effie as we planned.
Live with us.
Jane and I.
She is scared to be under the same roof with just me.
I'm sure that's not true.
Now, hang on, Morris.
An artistic colony was my idea! She said she would marry me on one condition.
That we were never alone.
An odd demand for a marriage.
Possibly a necessary one in William's case.
It's true.
I am difficult.
A clumsy man of great delicacy.
What if I were to move in with you instead, Maniac? I am afraid I am going back to Palestine, Gabriel.
I know you have never been one to take my advice.
But I would move in with Morris.
It would be a new beginning.
And if anyone was in need of a new beginning, Gabriel, then it is you.
And Lizzie's ghost will follow me there.
She will follow me there.
I didn't believe you loved her.
We have talked of this often.
Let me go on.
I did not believe you loved her until I saw you throw your poems into the grave.
I know how much they mean to you.
Well, I can't look at them again.
Not just to you.
But to others.
I don't know about that.
They were just idle scribbling.
No.
It was their quality that made your decision all the more remarkable.
They were clearly publishable.
"This is her picture as she was "It seems a thing to wonder on, "As though mine image in the glass Should tarry when myself am gone.
" You memorized it? We both did.
We thought in many ways they were your greatest work.
Really? Any sign? I think perhaps there.
It's the poems, Gabriel! We've found the poems! Completely undamaged! It's a miracle! It's God's will, William.
Surely it's God's will.
I have them, Fred.
God has returned them to me.
'I look at Gabriel as he says this 'and I look at myself 'and I realise that I will never believe another word he says.
'I am finally free.
'