The Name of the Rose Page #5

WILLIAM:
Monkeys do not laugh.

Laughter is particular to man.

JORGE:
As is sin. Christ never laughed.

WILLIAM:
Can we be so sure?

JORGE:
There is nothing in the scriptures to say

that He did.

WILLIAM:
And there's nothing in the scriptures to

say that He did not. Even the saints have

been known to employ comedy to ridicule

the enemies of the faith.

For example, when the pagans plunged St.

Maurus into the boiling water, he complained

that his bath was too cold. The Sultan put

his hand in, scalded it.

JORGE:
A saint immersed in boiling water does not

play childish tricks. He restrains his cries

and suffers for the truth.

WILLIAM:
And yet, Aristotle devoted his second book

of Poetics to comedy as an instrument of

truth.

JORGE:
You have read this work?

WILLIAM:
No, of course not. It's been lost for

many centuries.

JORGE:
No, it has not! It was never written!

Because Providence doesn't want futile

things glorified.

WILLIAM:
Oh, that I must contest...

JORGE:
Enough! This abbey is overshadowed by

grief. Yet you would intrude on our

sorrow with idle banter!

WILLIAM:
Forgive me, Venerable Jorge.

My remarks were truly out of place.

WILLIAM:
(to a monk)

Which was the Greek translator's desk?

MONK:
This one.

WILLIAM:
Come, Adso.

EXT.

WILLIAM:
Well, Adso, what did you deduce from

that visit?

ADSO:
That we are not meant to laugh in there.

WILLIAM:
But did you notice how few books there

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