Act II scene i

ACT II

Scene 1: Troubadours, Knights & Prisoners

Setting: Assisi town square

FRANCIS (standing off stage or on one side of the stage): Was that one of your friends from Gubbio?  Or does he live here in Assisi?  He looks a little familiar.

WOLF (standing beside FRANCIS): He lives around here.  He’s a peasant, a shepherd I suppose.

FRANCIS: Really?  A shepherd?  And he’s a friend of yours?

WOLF: Not a friend, exactly.  He caught me looking at his sheep, and..., well, ...

FRANCIS: I see.  You weren’t..., I mean, you didn’t...?

WOLF: Oh no!  I wasn’t!  I didn’t!  I wouldn’t!

FRANCIS: Well, I hope not.  But, he’s not from Gubbio, is he?

WOLF: No.  I quite like the arrangement we have at Gubbio.  It would be nice to have the same situation here in Assisi.  But the people don’t know me here.  I’ve changed, you know.

FRANCIS: I hope so.  It is possible to change.  A lot of people don’t believe that, but it’s true.  People—and wolves, even—can change their behaviour, if they really want to.

WOLF: It’s easier with some help, though.

FRANCIS: Yes.  Everything is easier with help from others.  That’s what is meant by “love thy neighbour”, it means help one another to be good.

WOLF: You were going to tell me about how you changed from bad to good.  I can’t imagine you being bad!  Who helped you? 

FRANCIS: I had a lot of help, but at first I didn’t see it as help.  My father helped me, but I’m sure he didn’t see it that way.  And at the time, neither did I.  The church helped me a lot, too.  But most of all I’d have to say that God helped me change.  It wasn’t easy, though.  I had a lot to learn, before I could see any changes in myself.

WOLF: How did it happen, then?  What did you do?

CURTAIN RISES: Richly dressed, rowdy teenagers on stage, noisy, laughing, dancing, singing loudly: the loudest one is young Francis.

FRANCIS (watching the scene on the stage): I suppose it all started when I was a young lad in my teens.  I was quite a handful.  My parents spoiled me.  I could have anything I wanted.  My father was rich.  He was a cloth merchant, you know.  He traveled a lot on business, and my mother adored me.  She let me do anything I wanted.   So that’s what I did.  Anything I wanted!

WOLF (watching the activity on the stage): What did you do that was so bad?

FRANCIS: Nothing really bad.  I had lots of friends, and we partied a lot.  We strolled the streets, making lots of noise.  Maybe some of us were rude to some people.   And maybe we had too much wine.  When people saw us on the streets at night, some of them would cross over to the other side, or maybe take another road home.  But lots of people enjoyed our music and our jokes.  We wouldn’t have hurt anyone, you understand.  We played pranks, but we weren’t bandits, or anything like that.  Just noisy teenagers, having fun.

WOLF: Hmm.  Rowdy kids, eh?

FRANCIS: Maybe.  But harmless.  Not bad kids.  And, you know what?  I was the ringleader.  That’s right!  Me!  I was the one who thought of ringing the church bells an hour early on some Sundays, getting all the priests in a tizzy, thinking they’d slept in. 

WOLF: Now, I certainly can imagine you doing that.  Mischievous but not bad. 

FRANCIS: And you should have seen my clothes!  I had all the best of everything.  Some folks said I was dressed like a prince.  And I suppose I was. 

WOLF: I can’t imagine that.  You always wear that, well that thing.  Just an old tunic.

FRANCIS: That’s true.  But I’ve changed, remember.  When I was younger, I wore what my family supplied for me.  My father was really rich.  Still is, I suppose.  I haven’t seen him in many years.  But I hear he’s still doing very well. 

WOLF: Didn’t your father want you to go into the same business he was in? 

FRANCIS: Certainly.  I had to go to school to learn to read and write and do numbers so I could work in the shop.  And when I got into my teens, I often had to man the shop while my father was away on business.  That was a disaster!

WOLF: A disaster?  Couldn’t you do it?  I’ve been around when the merchants were selling things in their stalls and shops.  Selling cloth in a shop doesn’t look hard.  Did you make mistakes giving change?  Couldn’t do your numbers very well?

FRANCIS: I could do my numbers.  In fact, you might say I could do them too well.  I could see how much profit my father was making and how rich he was getting day after day.

WOLF: That’s all right, isn’t it?  He was making the money honestly, wasn’t he?  He wasn’t a thief like me.

FRANCIS: Like you used to be, you mean.  He was an honest man.  He was a good man, but there were lots of people who didn’t have enough money to buy food or find a place to live.  One day, I was helping my father.  It was a very busy time.  Lots of customers were pushing and shoving, trying to get to the best bolts of material.  And a beggar chose that very moment to come and ask for money.

ENTER: BEGGAR, begging for money at Francis’ stall.  

Young Francis shoos him away.

WOLF: So what did you do?

FRANCIS: I’m so ashamed.  My father was very busy with two customers, trying to get a better price for their cloth.  I was helping with another couple of customers.  Without even thinking, I just told the beggar to go away.  I wasn’t even nice about it.  I almost chased him away.

WOLF: Did he go?

FRANCIS: Oh, yes!  He went away.  I’ll never forget that bent over sad-looking old man, shuffling along the street.  I watched him for a moment, then I left the stall and ran after him, but lost him in the crowd.  I promised myself I’d never let that happen again.

(CURTAIN CLOSES)

WOLF (still standing with Francis, off to one side of the stage): Oh, but you’re so good.  So I bet it never happened again.

FRANCIS (still standing with Sister Wolf): I wasn’t good, though.  That’s the point.  And it did happen again.  But that time, my father wasn’t home.  He was away at one of those European trade fairs he liked to go to.  That’s where he made most of his money.  But that didn’t stop him from being really angry at what I did.  It was a few years later, and I was really old enough to know better.  But there had been some changes in my life.  In everyone’s lives, in fact.

WOLF: What happened?

FRANCIS: We had a war again, and I still wanted the glory of being a heroic knight.

WOLF: Really? 

(CURTAIN OPENS: Same teenagers with armour and swords engage other teens in a battle at bridge near Perugia)

FRANCIS: When I was a young man, I saw war as very glamorous.  I imagined myself dressed in armour, riding a horse and wielding my sword.  My father supplied all the things I needed to fulfill my dream.  So, all dressed up like a knight in shining armour, I galloped through the gate out of Assisi and headed towards our enemy, the town of Perugia.  I found out quickly that it wasn’t really so glamorous.  In fact, it was terrible.  You see, Assisi had declared war on Perugia, and we thought we had the element of surprise.  It was only about thirty kilometres from here to there, but the land is so hilly that it’s not possible to go in a straight line.  We were really excited and noisy and by the time we came to the bridge at the foot of the hill that leads up to Perugia, we were already tired.  And the soldiers of Perugia had heard we were coming and they had only a short trot down the hill to the bridge.  That’s where it all ended.

(Teenaged knights battle [Assisi vs Perugia].  Perugians win, take Assisians as prisoners. 

All exit the stage.)

(CURTAIN CLOSES)

WOLF: What do you mean?

FRANCIS: We were taken captive.

WOLF: Was it really terrible? 

FRANCIS: It was bad.  But, you know, I always felt that it wasn’t as bad for me as it was for the others.  You know how I love singing and acting the clown.  I was able to make some of the guys laugh.  But for some people it was really miserable.  I tried to make it better for them.   It wasn’t easy to keep it up for a whole year, though.  That’s how long we were there.  There wasn’t much in the way of food.  And there was no medical help if we got sick.  And I did get sick, really sick.  By the time I got out, I needed a stick to help me walk.

WOLF: I bet you were glad to get out of there, though.  How did that happen?

FRANCIS: The war ended, so the Perugians let us all go home. 

WOLF: You must have been really happy, even if you were sick.  Did you ride home in your wonderful clothes? 

FRANCIS: After a year of sleeping in them?  We didn’t have beds, you know.  And they kept my horse.  No, going home was a much quieter affair.  It was a long walk.  And, for the first time in my life, I found no joy in the beauty of nature.  I found no joy at all. 

(CURTAIN OPENS: teenaged knights now in tatters, bowed down, miserable faces, cross the stage and exit slowly.) 

(CURTAIN CLOSES.)