One Night with the King Page #3

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None is more lovely than you, my queen.

- My thanks, fair prince.

- Prince?

Why is it for years you threatened

to join the caravans to Jerusalem,

yet you never do?

What holds you back?

Perhaps the courage to face it alone.

What if you had someone to join you?

MAN:
The herald returns!

The Queen asks the King's forgiveness.

She cannot leave her guests.

VASHTI:
I'm queen, not a pawn,

and I will not lower my dignity

or shame my reign

by wearing the royal crown

before your drunk

and thinly veiled war council.

MAN 1:
What news of the Queen?

MAN 2:
Where is our queen?

WOMAN:
Queen Vashti!

MAN 3:
Queen Vashti!

Am I to be a mockery before my subjects?

Or Greece as well?

- Continue, Cousin.

- Might not this

deed of refusal

travel abroad to all women,

making their husbands

contemptible in their eyes?

Will not it be said by all, "Xerxes

commanded his wife to come before him,

"but she came not"?

Vashti's guilty not only of

disobedience to the crown

but against the protocol of our fathers.

And tell me,

what dictates the protocol?

A royal edict must be issued

and written into the rolls of the land

that Vashti...

That Vashti come no more before the King,

but that her royal position

be given to a new queen,

more worthy

than her.

My lord,

what answer do I send the Queen?

Vashti!

Vashti!

(ALL CHANTING)

The land has no more queen!

I wish not to be queen here any longer.

Mordecai is giving me his blessing.

Let us leave tomorrow,

together.

MORDECAI:

Thus the scribes were assembled,

and a decree sent forth.

The princes did indeed press upon Xerxes,

the king, soon to depart for war,

"Leave behind a queen

"to keep the people unified."

Every maiden was to be considered,

the choicest of whom

to be brought from across the empire

and into the palace.

In accordance with the protocol,

young men were also rounded up

to become eunuchs

who would serve the queen's candidates

during their time of preparation.

MORDECAI:
There's no need for alarm.

In all likelihood they will not come for you.

And not all that are taken will be chosen.

Doubtless, the queen

has already been selected

through bribery or chicanery.

How do I keep our laws?

How do I pray?

What excuse do I offer God

for not keeping his commandments?

Oh, Hadassah.

God sees the inward observance.

The court is a dangerous place.

I think it will be better

if you forgot that you were a Jew.

If this is a sin, then...

Then let it be on my head.

Promise me that you will do that

if you're taken. Promise me that!

If I am taken,

I will do as you say.

I should give you a different name.

Hadassah is too Jewish.

Esther.

Esther is a good Babylonian name.

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