Tulip Fever Page #2

(indistinct chatter, shouting)

- Nice pig heads!

- Um, I'll take four chops and a hen, for a guilder.

- Four chops.

(chuckles)

- Cheer up, Simon.

(chuckles)

- MAN:
Thank you very much.

(snarls)

CORNELIS:
The blessings of thy bounty, in good times and bad, now and for ever, may thy servants be truly thankful. Amen.

- Amen.

(urinating)

- Amen.

- Amen.

(urinating)

- Amen.

- Amen.

(Cornelis urinating)

- Amen.

- Amen.

(children's playful chatter in distance)

- CORNELIS:
I've decided to engage the services of a painter. A portrait painter. And so I've hired Mattheus. He's been hard at work scouring the art world - for a suitable candidate.

{woman moans)

(Mattheus moans)

(Mattheus laughs)

(Mattheus laughs)

(Playful growl)

(Mattheus laughs)

- I'll see you tonight at tavern.

- I need a couple of whores tomorrow... bring a friend.

- I'm doing a tavern scene.

- Doing the innkeeper's daughter for Paul Nassau.

- Nassau can't paint tavern scenes to save his life!

CORNELIS:
He's found an artist. I'm assured he's sober, industrious and respectable.

- Jan!

- Jan!

- His name is Jan Van Loos. He's one of the most promising young artists in Amsterdam. So his price is still reasonable.

- My skating scene.

Hmm.

- The Raising of Lazarus.

- I'm the blind beggar.

- The Drunkard's Downward Path.

- Thank you for showing me your work. They're good, but they lack obsession.

- You will make a handsome...

- You think there's vanity in it?

(Cornelis burps)

- Well, there is some.

- And when everything else about me has been forgotten, they'll say, "Look there at that lucky old dog. Didn't he have a lovely young wife?"

(chuckles):

- Yeah.

- A double portrait, Cornelis Sandvoort and his wife, Sophia.

(whispers):

- Obsession.

- God, was I sozzled.

- Jan, listen, I got you a commission. Double portrait, Cornelis Sandvoort and his wife.

- Who?

- The king of peppercorns. He's a pompous old windbag, but it's 50 guilders.

(Mattheus chuckles softly)

- MAN:
Oi, where's me money?

- It's coming soon.

MARIA:
So, in the form of a struggling young artist minding his manners, upheaval entered the house of Cornelis Sandvoort.

(clanging)

- I have an appointment.

- A globe for far-flung trade, scales for the weighing of our sins on Judgment Day, and... death, to remind the spectator, "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity."

- But where would portrait painters be without a little bit of vanity?

(footsteps approaching)

- CORNELIS:
Like this, I think. And I here.

- Hmm? No. Here. Allow me. Hold still.

- Mmm.

MARIA:
I saw the future in the mirror that day. But I didn't know it.

(sighs)

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