Star Wars
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Shakespeare Edition
Original story by George Lucas
Text supplied by William Shakespeare
Arranged by Michael Prinke
AP Humanities
Period 2
Completed January 10, 2006
Dramatis Personae:
- All
- Anakin Skywalker
- Count Dooku
- Obi-Wan Kenobi
- Mace Windu
- Yoda
- Captain Cody
- Chancellor Palpatine
- Bail Organa
- Padme Skywalker
- Jedi 1
- Separatist 1
- Separatist 2
- General Grievous
- Grievous’s Guard
- Darth Vader
- Nute Gunray
- Senate/Politicians
- Jedi Councilman
- Clone Troopers
- Bail’s Attendants
- Palpatine’s Attendant
- Queen Organa
- Owen Lars
- Beru Lars
Act I, Scene I
Enter Mace Windu, Yoda, and, via hologram, Captain Cody.
Mace: “He can report, as seemeth by his plight, of the revolt.”
Cody: “This desperate tempest hath so bang'd the Separatists, that their designment halts:the noble ships of the Republic hath seen a grievous wreck and sufferance on most part oftheir fleet.”
Yoda: “Dismay’d not this, our Generals, Skywalker and Kenobi?”
Cody: “Not sure, though hoping, of their good success.”
Mace: “Our Chancellor keeps his state, but in best time we will require his absence.”
Yoda: “Dismiss’d.”
Cody: “Ay, m’lord.”
Cody’s hologram fades out.
Mace: “The chancellor is very strangely gone from hence; bore many gentlemen, myselfbeing one, in hand and hope of action: but we do learn by those that know the very nervesof state, his givings-out were of an infinite distance from his true-meant design.”
Yoda: “There’s some in hope.”
Mace: “So I hope Anakin was not born to die on Count Dooku’s sword…”
Exeunt
Act I, Scene II
Enter Obi-Wan and Anakin, on the observation deck of the battleship. Chancellor Palpatine sits shackled to the throne. Anakin kneels.
Anakin: “I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, if I be mistaken; for my duty cannot be silent when I think your highness wronged.”
Palpatine: “O sirs, fly this place; intelligence is given where you are hid; you have now the good advantage of the night: have you not spoken 'gainst Count Dooku?”
Obi: “I know no news, my lord.”
Palpatine: “Hark! The Count’s trumpets!”
Enter Count Dooku.
Dooku: “Come hither, sirrah: (He readies his lightsaber) on Geonosis did I take thee prisoner; and then I swore thee, saving of thy life, that whatsoever I did bid thee do, thou shouldst attempt it.”
Palpatine (to Obi-Wan and Anakin): “Stop, stop!”
Obi-Wan: “We’ll not be struck, my lord; this is not altogether fool!”
Dooku: “A noble prisoner. Revoke thy doom; or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat, I'll tell thee thou dost evil.”
Palpatine (To Anakin): “My boy, take his offer!”
Anakin: “I’ll not sleep, my lord, until I’ve delivered his head!”
Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Dooku fight. Dooku knocks out Obi-Wan. Anakin continues to fight against Dooku and cuts off his hands. He takes Dooku’s lightsaber and crosses both it and his own at Dooku’s neck.
Palpatine: “And now the king would drink to Anakin! Here’s to thy health! He that's coming must be provided for: and you shall put this night's great business into my dispatch; which shall to all our nights and days to come give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.In pity of his misery, dispatch his nighted life; moreover, to descry the strength o' the enemy. ”
Anakin hesitates. Dooku looks to Palpatine, apparently shocked.
Anakin: “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that function is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is but what is not.”
Palpatine: “The attempt and not the deed confounds us. Do’t!”
Anakin: “Thou art slain; no medicine in the world can do thee good; in thee there is not half an hour of life; the treacherous instrument is in my hand, unbated and envenom'd: the foul practice hath turn'd itself on thee; I can do no more: the king, the king's to blame.”
Anakin beheads Dooku, then drops Dooku’s saber and frees Palpatine.
Palpatine: “These deeds must not be thought after these ways; so, it will make us mad. Now, fly, good Skywalker, fly!”
Anakin and Palpatine begin to leave, but Anakin stops and goes over to the K.O.’d Obi-
Wan.
Palpatine: “Not now, sweet Anakin, some other time!”
Anakin: “Who can control his fate? What should be spoken here, where our fate, hid in an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us?”
Anakin hoists Obi-Wan over his shoulder.
Anakin: “Rather than so, come fate into the list, and champion me to the utterance!”
Exeunt
Act II, Scene I:
Enter Mace, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Palpatine, Bail Organa, and Politicians at the landing sight.
Mace: “What ho, Palpatine! What bloody man is that?”
Palpatine: “This is the general who like a good and hardy soldier fought 'gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend! Say to the Master the knowledge of the broil as thou didst leave it.”
Anakin: “Demand me nothing: what you know, you know. From that time I will never speak a word.”
Palpatine (To Anakin): “Pardon me, Anakin Skywalker: The enemies of the Republicshall say this; then, in a friend, it is cold modesty.”
Palpatine (to Mace and Politicians): Doubtful it stood; as two spent swimmers, that docling together and choke their art. The merciless Dooku--worthy to be a rebel, for to that the multiplying villanies of the Force do swarm upon him--from the corporate worlds of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied; and fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, show'd like a rebel's whore: but all's too weak: for brave Skywalker--well he deserves that name-disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd lightsaber, which smoked with bloody execution, like valour's minion carved out his passage till he faced the slave; Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, and fix'd his head upon our battlements!”
Obi-Wan: “O valiant cousin! O worthy gentleman!”
Anakin: “O, yet I do repent me of my fury, that I did kill him.”
Palpatine: “If I say sooth, they were as cannons overcharged with double cracks, so theydoubly redoubled their strikes upon the foe. But hark! We have scotch’d the snake, notkill’d it. For Grievous fled: Men must not walk too late.”
Mace: “Let him fly far: not in this galaxy shall he remain uncaught.”
Palpatine: “I thank thee.”
Exit Mace.
Palpatine (to Anakin): To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir, and I'll request your presence.”
Exit Palpatine, Bail, and Politicians.
Obi-Wan (To Anakin): “Why, stay, and hear me speak.”
Anakin: “Ay?”
Obi-Wan: “Anakin, beware Palpatine.”
Anakin: “Good sir, why do you start?”
Obi-Wan: “Sir, this report of his did Palpatine so envenom with his envy that he could nothing do but wish and beg your sudden coming o'er, to play with him.”
Anakin: “Why do you speak so faintly?”
Obi-Wan: “For from broad words and 'cause he fail'd his presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear the Jedi live in his disgrace: sir, can you tell where he bestows himself? Observe him. Stand close.”
Anakin: “That’s not an office for a friend!”
Obi-Wan: “Anakin, this deed, for thine especial safety,— which we do tender, as we dearly grieve for that which thou hast done,—must send thee hence with fiery quickness; therefore prepare thyself.”
Act II, Scene II
Enter Bail and Politicians. Enter Anakin, hurriedly catching up with them.
Bail: “What ho, Anakin! Well I may chance to see you; for I would very fain speak withyou.”
Anakin: “What ho, Bail?”
Bail: “The king hath happily received, Anakin, the news of thy success; and when hereads thy personal venture in the rebels' fight, his wonders and his praises do contend which should be thine or his: silenced with that, in viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day, he finds thee in the stout separatist ranks, nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, strange images of death. As thick as hail came post with post; and every one did bear thy praises in his kingdom's great defence, and pour'd them down before him. And, for an earnest of a greater honour, he bade me, from him, call thee Jedi Councilman.”
Anakin: “My noble friend, you greet with present grace and great prediction
of noble having and of royal hope. By Dooku’s death I know I am Jedi Knight, but how a
Master? To be Councilman stands not within the prospect of belief, no more than to be a
Master. I cannot speak enough of this content; it stops me here; it is too much of joy: and this, and this, the greatest discords be.”
Bail: “In which addition, hail, most worthy thane! For it is thine. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell.”
Exit Bail, enter Palpatine
Anakin: “M’lord, always obedient to your grace's will, I come to know your pleasure.”
Palpatine: “Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by and by have some speech
with you: the satisfaction I would require is likewise your own benefit.”
Anakin: “Royal Palpatine, whom I have ever honour'd as my king, loved as my father,
and as my master follow'd, what doest thou require?”
Palpatine: “Now art thou my lieutenant. If you will watch the Jedi’s going thence, I’ll call thee Master, Councilman,anything thou wishest: O answer me!”
Anakin: “Now, my good lord, let there be some more test made of my metal, before so noble and so great a figure be stamp'd upon it.”
Palpatine: “No more evasion: we have with a leaven'd and prepared choice proceeded to you; therefore take your honours. Our haste from hence is of so quick condition that it prefers itself and leaves unquestion'd matters of needful value. We shall write to you, as time and our concernings shall importune, how it goes with us, and do look to know what doth befall you here. So, fare you well: to the hopeful execution do I leave you of your commissions.”
Anakin: “The heavens give safety to your purposes!”
Palpatine: “There is but one more thing.”
Anakin: “Ay, lord?”
Palpatine: “Within this hour at most I will advise you where to plant yourselves;acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time, the moment on't; for't must be done soon,and something from the palace; always thought that I require a clearness. We hear, our bloody foe Grievous is bestow'd on Utapau.Fly to the court of the Jedi and unfold this message.”
Anakin: “I’ll do’t, my lord!”
Exit Palpatine
Anakin (Aside): “This supernatural soliciting cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill, why hath it given me earnest of success, commencing in truth? Truths are told, as happy prologues to the swelling act of the imperial theme.
Exit Anakin
Act III, Scene I
Enter Jedi Council, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Mace, and Yoda.
Mace: “Nay, it is possible enough to judgment: I do not so secure me in the error, butthe main articles I do approve in fearful sense… thou wilt be Councilman, but Jedi Mastery we shalt deny. Now, you spoke of General Grievous. Where the place?”
Anakin: “Utapau, my lord. The Chancellor requests that I go.”
Mace: “Let's further think of this; weigh what convenience both of time and means may fit us to our shape: if this should fail, and that our drift look through our bad performance, 'twere better not assay'd: therefore this project should have a back or second, that might hold, if this should blast in proof.”
Jedi Councilman: “True; worthy Obi-Wan; he is full so valiant, and in hiscommendations I am fed; it is a banquet to me.”
Yoda: “Let's after him, whose care is gone before to bid us welcome: it is a peerlesskinsman.”
All (except Anakin and Obi-Wan): “Ay!”
Mace: “Then it is settled. Obi-Wan, cut off Grievous’s head.”
Obi-Wan: “I’ll do’t, lord.”
Exit Mace, Yoda, and Jedi Council.
Anakin (Aside): “By heaven, I would rather have been his hangman.”
Exeunt
Act III, Scene II
Enter Grievous, Grievous’s Guard, the Separatists, and Nute Gunray.
Guard: “O my good lord, the Count of Serenno is dead.”
Grievous: “What! Dooku, dead?”
Guard: “Ay, m’lord.”
Grievous: “As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport.”
Nute: “Sir, I had thought, by making this well known unto you, to have found a safe
redress; but now grow fearful by what youself too late have spoke and done, that you
protect this course, and put it on by your allowance; which if you should, the fault would
not 'scape censure, nor the redresses sleep, which, in the tender of a wholesome weal,
might in their working do you that offence, which else were shame, that then necessity
will call discreet proceeding.”
Grievous: “Silence, fool, lest you find yourself in my grief! Away, old men, away! CountDooku hath lost. Take the shadows of Mustafar for your good host.”
Exit Nute and Separatists. Enter Obi-Wan, saber drawn.
Obi-Wan: “Draw, knave!”
Grievous: “Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail on one that is neitherknown of thee nor knows thee!”
Obi-Wan: “What a brazen-faced varlet art thou, to deny thou knowest me! Is it two daysago since I tripped up thy heels, and beat thy Count before the Chancellor? Draw, yourogue: for, though it be night, yet the moon shines; I'll make a sop o' the moonshine ofyou: draw, you whoreson cullionly barber-monger, draw!
Grievous: “My fool. What, no rescue? Very well then. Aroint thee!”
Obi-Wan and Grievous fight.
Grievous: “But I will tarry; the fool will stay, and let the wise man fly: the knave turns fool that runs away; the fool no knave.”
Grievous turns to exit, but Clone Troopers enter and block his path.
Obi-Wan: “Persuade me to the murder of your lordship, Grievous. Draw, you rascal;come your ways! Draw, seem to defend thyself, now quit you well.”
Obi-Wan and Grievous continue to fight. Obi-Wan kills Grievous.
Exeunt.
Act III, Scene III:
Enter Padme. Enter Anakin.
Padme: “Is Anakin there?”
Anakin: “A piece of him!”
Padme: “Husband!”
Anakin: “I have missed thee well. Come, my dear love, the purchase made, the fruits are
to ensue; that profit's yet to come 'tween me and you.”
Padme: “My prince!”
Anakin: “But why do you start?”
Padme: “I am with child.”
Anakin: “With child? Great happiness! Some wine, ho!”
Padme: “But my husband, something does thee grief. Thy countenance betrays thy nature; if thou hast any sound or use of voice speak to me; if there be any good thing tobe done that may do thee to ease, embrace to me; speak to me!”
Anakin: “To desperation turn my trust and hope.”
Padme: “What doest thou mean?”
Anakin: “Alas, I am arointed of the council’s trust. A good and virtuous nature may
recoil in an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon; that which you are my
thoughts cannot transpose: angels are bright still, though the brightest fell: though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, yet grace must still look so.”
Padme: “I be not offended: I speak not as in absolute fear of you. I think our republicsinks beneath the yoke; it weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash is added to her wounds: I think withal there would be hands uplifted in my right; and here from gracious Coruscant have we offer of goodly thousands: but, for all this, when we shall tread upon the tyrant's head, or wear it on our sword, yet my poor country shall have more vices than it had before, more suffer and more sundry ways than ever, by him that shall succeed. But lo, you have the ear of the Chancellor! Speak you to him. Let the bloodshed halt and diplomacy take hence.”
Anakin: “That is not within my station! No right have I to ask such things of a friend andmentor. Take up such talk thyself. I have business with the Chancellor I must attend to”
Padme: “I pray thee, wait!”
Exit Anakin.
Exeunt.
Act IV, Scene I:
Enter Anakin and Palpatine.
Anakin: “Three great ones of the Jedi, in personal suit to make me your champion, offcapp'd to them: and, by the faith of man, I know my price, I am worth no worse a place: but they, as loving their own pride and purposes, evades them, with a bombast circumstance horribly stuff'd with epithets of war; and, in conclusion, nonsuits my mediators; for, 'Anakin,' says they, 'we have already chose our officer.' And what was he? Forsooth, a great arithmetician, one Obi-Wan Kenobi, a negotiator, a fellow that never want to set a squadron in the field, and barely the division of a battle knows more than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric, wherein the toged consuls can propose as masterly as he: mere prattle, without practice, is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election: and I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof at Geonosis, at Cato Neimodia and on other grounds close and far, must be be-lee'd and calm'd by debitor and creditor: this counter-caster, he, in good time, must their champion be, and I--Force bless the mark!—the Jediship’s spy!I beseech thee humbly, o mentor, for some comfort.