"The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" (1997) Film script transcribed by Belladonna.

Quasimodo: Mandy Patinkin Dom Claude Frollo: Richard Harris Esmeralda: Salma Hayek Gringoire: Edward Atterton Clopin: Jim Dale Blond Captain: Benedick Blythe King Louis XII: Nigel Terry Minister Gauchere: Nickolas Grace Priest: Vernon Dobtcheff Red-headed Girl: Cassie Stuart Screenplay: John Fasano Music: Ed Shearmur Director: Peter Medak OPENING TITLES: "Paris, France,1480. A dark, frightening time when people believed the world was flat and that God's truth was hand-written on parchment paper in Cathedral libraries. It was a world where modern ideas were banned by the Church, and the mere possession of a printed page was a crime punishable by death." (Exterior: Dim light, thick driving rain. Shot of FROLLO and a group of cloaked men bursting into a townhouse.) VOICE: Dom Frollo! FROLLO: Satan's instrument. (He is looking at a printing press. The shot moves back to the exterior: the press is on a cart which is being taken to the doors of Notre Dame cathedral. FROLLO is supervising the men as they carry the press inside.) FROLLO: Come, come, come! Get this thing out of sight! (A baby's cry distracts him and he walks over to where it lies, in a basket on the steps. He flinches as he sees its features, then as it continues crying he picks it up, cradles it in his arms and looks up to the heavens.) TITLE: 25 Years Later on the day of the FESTIVAL OF FOOLS. (Scene: Place de Notre-Dame. It is a bright afternoon, and the place is full of townspeople and entertainers. The focus is on a ragged BOY running away from a blond CAPTAIN on horseback.) CAPTAIN: Thief! Stop him! (The BOY collides with a woman, recovers and reaches the threshold of the cathedral.) BOY: Sanctuary! Sanctuary! PRIEST: Get inside! (pushes him into the Cathedral) BOY: Thank you, Father (disappears) PRIEST: (bars CAPTAIN from entering) Stop! CAPTAIN: Aside! I'm going to arrest him, he's a thief. PRIEST: The House of God is sanctuary for all. The power of your Law stops at this doorway. CAPTAIN: He's got to come out sometime! (Laughs, then rides away) (Scene: A stage elsewhere in the Place. PIERRE GRINGOIRE is handing out pamphlets and declaiming to the largely uninterested crowd assembled there.) GRINGOIRE: The Court of Spain sent a man across the ocean to discover a New World. Our King would have us believe that there is no world outside the walls of this city! They tax our meat, our salt! Is there a shortage of food on the tables of the Palais Royale? (A bored member of the audience crumples up the paper he's been given. Meanwhile, CLOPIN, another BEGGAR and a RED-HEADED GIRL have arrived on the scene and stand some distance off, observing) CLOPIN: She's about to begin! What's going on? BEGGAR: (indicating GRINGOIRE) Politics wrapped up in the skin of drama. GRINGOIRE: Let me answer the questions they will not let you ask! Why are there no books in Paris save those in our churches? REDHEAD: He's good! CLOPIN: A populist? BEGGAR: Worse. An idealist. (spits) CLOPIN: He's mine! (Hobbles quickly towards GRINGOIRE) GRINGOIRE: I will tell you. It is because Church and State are of one mind - that you should have no minds of your own! Citizens of Paris! Knowledge is power! We must not stand idly by! We must rise up! Rise up and CLOPIN: (loudly) Siddown! (Laughter from audience) They'll raise you up high enough, on the gallows! GRINGOIRE: What, by keeping the people ignorant? CLOPIN: Oho! Here we have an expert on Ignorance, eh? GRINGOIRE: Shut up you fool, I'm giving these people the truth! CLOPIN: The citizens of Paris don't need the truth! We need dancing! We need music! We need - La Esmeralda! (ESMERALDA arrives with a crowd of other gypsies, which draws the audience away from GRINGOIRE's stage. GRINGOIRE tries to call them back) GRINGOIRE: Wait! Wait! The nobles would have us (He catches sight of ESMERALDA as she ascends the steps of a marble structure in the marketplace and begins to dance for the crowd. To himself:) Ive never seen such beauty. CAPTAIN: For a gypsy. GRINGOIRE: Whats her name? CAPTAIN: Esmeralda. GRINGOIRE: Esmeralda... (Scene: A whitewashed, candlelit room where a large number of monks are working as copyists. The camera closes in on FROLLO, who has his head sunken within the recesses of his cowl, praying. He lifts his head, rises from his seat and goes to the window, where he can see ESMERALDA dancing in the square. She may be only a tiny speck from this distance, but hes still overcome with what he sees.)

(Scene: A lopsided figure emerges from the belltower, makes his way past the builders who are constructing the right-hand tower of Notre-Dame, gets onto a platform operated by a rope pulley and makes his way down to the ground.) (Scene: ESMERALDA leaves the marble structure and CLOPIN takes her place. He is now dressed as a jester and clowns around for the audiences benefit.) CLOPIN: Heyheyhey! Citizens! Fellow Gypsies! The time has come, the moment is here, for us to choose our King! (Audience cheers) King of the Fools! Its the ugliest face that wins the crown, all right? So men, women, come on up! Come on up! If your face is gruesome, grotesque or just plain grisly, bring it up! If your face is revolting, repulsive, lets have a look at it! (A piece of sacking, painted with a king on his throne with a hole cut out for the face, is rolled down) If your face is like the arse-end of a donkey, lets have a laugh! Men, women, the ugliest face! Will it be this one? (A woman sticks her head through the hole as the audience laughs) (Scene: The camera switches to a nearby sheltered balcony where the KING and his retinue are watching the festivities) KING: What do you think? How do you like her face? QUEEN: How can they even look? KING: I think the ugly is very appealing. QUEEN: To some people, maybe not to me! NOBLEMAN: Its a matter of taste! (Camera goes back to the contest, where a man has just put his face through the hole. CLOPIN looks around, laughing, and spots someone watching from behind a cart. Only a sliver of face is visible, but thats enough to shock CLOPIN momentarily.) CLOPIN: Good God... YOU! Man! Come here! Dont you want to be famous, eh? Course you do! Bring him up! Bring him up! (The man panics and runs off, but is caught and hauled up to the platform) Thats it, come on, you can do it One foot at a time, all right? Come on... Thats it! Citizens, the contest is over! Here is your King, you fools! (QUASIMODO Crowd (variously): Its the bellringer! Its Quasimodo! Its the hunchback! REDHEAD: The Hunchback of Notre Dame! Yes, make him the King! (Crowd cheers, and the sackcloth is pulled away to reveal QUASIMODOs entire body) CLOPIN: Well, Quasimodo, you were always up in your belltower we knew he was ugly, but didnt know he was this ugly! (QUASIMODO tries to bite him, but CLOPIN gets out of the way) Old friend, you win the contest, do you understand? We want to you be the King of the Fools! So what do you say? (Pause) Whats the matter, cant you speak? REDHEAD: Hes deaf! The bells have made him deaf! CLOPIN: Then he should be King of France! (The audience laughs, then starts a chant; The crown! The crown! The crown!) CLOPIN: Yes! Yes! Hey, where are you going? (QUASIMODO has just ambled away and two men have to stop him leaving) Esmeralda the crown! (ESMERALDA climbs back up, a wire-net crown in her hand. FROLLO is watching from an upper window. She reaches the top but backs away at QUASIMODOs hideousness) CLOPIN: Come on, Esmeralda. There isnt a man in Paris who wouldnt accept a death sentence if it were given by your hand. Go on. (ESMERALDA approaches nervously, QUASIMODO shies away: in order for her to crown him she must touch him. She does so, and QUASIMODO takes off the crown to look at it, then puts it back on and looks around) CLOPIN: Quasimodo! We proclaim you King of the Fools! Hail Quasimodo! (Scene: The Kings Balcony. A minister dressed in black has just arrived) GAUCHERE: (bowing) Your Majesty. KING: Ah, Minister Gauchere. Come on, youve missed the King of the Fools. (Both look on at the spectacle of QUASIMODO being carried on a palanquin by the crowd, with crowd and sceptre, shouting Thank you! Thank you all! FROLLO watches from above) GAUCHERE: Did you know that Monsignor Frollo has the Royal Guard searching everywhere for books? What possible danger lies in books? KING: Enjoy the Festival. Dom Frollo is old, and set in his ways he hasnt ventured beyond the steps of the Cathedral for a decade. (The procession has reached those same Cathedral steps now, and CLOPIN beckons ESMERALDA to come and dance. She does so as QUASIMODO shouts and applauds. FROLLO comes to the grille, watches her, then opens the door and comes outside) FROLLO: STOP!!!!!!! (The music stops and only QUASIMODO is left still cheering. Then his eyes meet FROLLOs, and a look of shame crosses his face. He clambers off his throne and walks past his master back into the Cathedral) REDHEAD: He cant take our King away! CLOPIN: He did! (Crowd breaks up, muttering.) (Scene: Notre-Dame interior.) FROLLO: Quasimodo! (Walks in front, so QUASIMODO can read his lips) They have humiliated you. Have you no pride? Quasimodo, do you not understand? You have been touched by God! He has chosen you to go directly to Heaven! He brought you to our steps those many years ago to protect you against the cruelties of man and the temptations of women. (He tries to take away QUASIs crown, but the hunchback refuses.) Venture again into the world outside and you do so without Gods protection and mine. (Exterior: Place de Notre-Dame. Dusk. GRINGOIRE sees ESMERALDA with the other gypsies as they move into the warmth of a stabe forge. We then move into the Cathedral to see QUASIMODO ringing the bells and FROLLO, stripped to the waist, flogging himself bloodily in an attempt to rid himself of his thoughts. He staggers to the window and murmurs a single word - Esmeralda.) (Scene: Interior of Notre-Dame. QUASIMODO is seen walking along a balcony when he spots FROLLO in discussion with two shifty-looking peasants. He is counting coins into their hands.) 1st MAN: Its not enough. FROLLO: Here. (Both men leave, and QUASIMODO stares after them.) (Scene: Exterior, a Parisian street. Night. ESMERALDA is seen walking with her white goat.) ESMERALDA: Come on Djali, weve got to get home. Come on! (The two shifty types attack her and attempt to abduct her; she screams) Help! HELP!!! GRINGOIRE: Hey you there! Help! Guards of the watch! Leave her, you cant touch her! (Tries to rescue her but is kicked back. QUASIMODO appears on the scene and makes short work of the peasants. They flee as the CAPTAIN and his soldiers ride in. Their appearance panics QUASIMODO and GRINGOIRE attempts to calm him down.)

CAPTAIN: Stop the wretches! GRINGOIRE: (to QUASI) Youve got nothing to fear, youve done nothing wrong! CAPTAIN: Hold that freak! GRINGOIRE: Officer, he was trying to help! CAPTAIN: Arrest him! QUASIMODO: I did nothing! CAPTAIN: Out of the way! (As his horse veers round it knocks GRINGOIRE unconscious) QUASIMODO: I did nothing! I did nothing! (Scene: Notre-Dame Interior. The two men return to FROLLO: he turns and goes to the altar, where the PRIEST is praying.) FROLLO: The bells are silent. Where is Quasimodo? PRIEST: I dont know, Monsignor. FROLLO: Find him! (Scene: Exterior, Paris Street, Night. GRINGOIRE wakes to find himself surrounded by a leering mob of ragged peasants) GRINGOIRE: Where am I? Hell? CLOPIN: You are where no law-abiding man has ever walked! Where the Kings Guard ventured into it vanished! Into small pieces! You are in the Court of Miracles! Where gypsies, unfrocked priests and wastrels from every nation are beggars by day and men by night! A vast dressing room, where the entire cast of a never-ending comedy performed on the streets of Paris by theft, prostitution and murder don and remove their costumes! (Crowd burst into laughter and toss their crutches into the circle) GRINGOIRE: And you are the director of this unholy theatre company, I suppose? CLOPIN: I am King! GRINGOIRE: King of Thieves! CLOPIN: Oh no, no, no. Here I am King! Monarch! Pope! God! And you - dont belong. GRINGOIRE: No, I am the man who tried to enlighten the noble citizens of Paris to your plight this morning, in the great square. CLOPIN: Oh yes You want to help us? Mmm? Speak up in our defence? What do you know of us, eh? Youre worse than the nobles, you are an intellectual! They treat us like cattle, you make us into causes! Neither puts bread on the table. You have entered the Kingdom of the Downtrodden without having been trod upon. The law that Paris applies to us thieves, we thieves will apply to you. (Thrusts a noose over GRINGOIREs neck) You will be hanged. GRINGOIRE: What? CLOPIN: Up he goes! GRINGOIRE: No! Wait! Please (He is hauled up to a precarious balancing point above the crowd, on the shoulders of a hefty peasant woman) CLOPIN: Comfortable, eh? Just wink! Right! On my word, Simone will take leave of her perch - and you will take leave of this Earth! REDHEAD: Wait! CLOPIN: Not now! REDHEAD: What about the Law of Bohemia? (Crowd nods and mutters) RANDOM PEASANT: Shes right! RANDOM PEASANT #2: The Law of Bohemia! GRINGOIRE: WHAT LAW OF BOHEMIA?!?!?!?!? CLOPIN: All right! The Law of Bohemia says that a King cant hang a man without asking if theres a Gypsy woman who wants him. You will marry a thief or the rope. And no japes about being well hung! Women! Is there a trollop amongst you from the switch down to the shincap wholl have this silver-tongued rodent? GRINGOIRE: Please, someone! CLOPIN: A man, for nothing! (Cries of Get on with it! from the audience) Well worth the money, all of him! GRINGOIRE: Please, Ill be a good husband, please! OLD WOMAN: Hang him! (Crowd echo this proposition; ESMERALDA enters) CLOPIN: Going once! Going twice! ESMERALDA: Ill take him! GRINGOIRE: La Esmeralda?!? CLOPIN: Youll ruin our sport, Esmeralda. ESMERALDA: I said, I will marry this man. CLOPIN: Let him down! (GRINGOIRE is freed and brought to stand beside ESMERALDA, CLOPIN places his hands on their heads) Here is your saviour. Brother, she is your wife: sister, he is your husband. Amen. ESMERALDA: I am Esmeralda. GRINGOIRE: Gringoire. Pierre Gringoire. (Keels over backwards in a dead faint) (Scene: Place de Notre Dame, Dawn. Scene changes to the interior of a prison. We see QUASIMODO huddled in the corner of a cell: two GUARDS notice him and start insulting him loudly.) (Scene: Exterior,Day. GRINGOIRE and ESMERALDA are sitting by a gypsy caravan, eating.) GRINGOIRE: I love you, Esmeralda. ESMERALDA: You love my cooking. GRINGOIRE: Im serious! ESMERALDA: Djali loves me. Shes been with me since she was born, I think she knows what Im thinking. GRINGOIRE: I wish I knew what you were thinking. ESMERALDA: I think you are liking this gypsy life. GRINGOIRE: Cant complain! No, Im ready to live with you as husband and wife. (Gets a look from ESMERALDA) As brother and sister, if you prefer. Im enough of a philosopher to keep everything in the proper equilibrium. ESMERALDA: Equil-what? GRINGOIRE: The proper balance. ESMERALDA: Oh, you are a juggler! GRINGOIRE: No, Im sorry, I dont juggle. ESMERALDA: Then you must learn! Ill teach you. GRINGOIRE: I dont want to!

ESMERALDA: Look! (Retrieves balls from the back of the caravan) If youre going to be my husband, youre going to need a trade. GRINGOIRE: I have a trade! Im an orator. ESMERALDA: Youll be a juggler. Watch! Its very easy! (She juggles for him) GRINGOIRE: But I could never do that! ESMERALDA: Yes you can! Come here, try it! Two balls on this hand, one ball on this hand.. All you have to do is throw and catch throw and catch (Positions his body for him) And keep your elbows close to your body. Here. GRINGOIRE: (juggles for a few seconds then drops the balls) Argh! Its no use, Im not a juggler, I dont even want to be a juggler! (ESMERALDA regards him for a few seconds, then kisses him on the lips.) GRINGOIRE: Why did you do that? ESMERALDA: Because I wanted to. Keep practising. (Scene: Place de Notre Dame, Day. QUASIMODO is brought out in a cart to the pillory, watched by a jeering crowd, the priests of Notre-Dame aligned on the cathedral steps, and the KING and his retinue on their covered balcony.) QUEEN: Who is that? GAUCHERE: The bellringer of Notre Dame. Dom Frollo is his guardian. (QUASIMODO has his tunic ripped down to his waist, exposing his hump. AN OFFICIAL stands beside him and reads from a scroll as ESMERALDA, GRINGOIRE and CLOPIN arrive) OFFICIAL: Let it be known that Quasimodo, the bellringer of Notre Dame, is to receive fifty strokes with the cat-o-nine-tails for his attack upon a woman. ESMERALDA: We must stop them, he was helping me! GRINGOIRE: Yes, but theyll never listen. CLOPIN: The poets right, we cant get involved. (The TORTURER arrives and starts to flog QUASIMODO as the crowd count the strokes aloud) PRIEST: Eminence, can you not stop this? FROLLO: Yes. I can. (Continues to look on impassively) Quasimodo betrayed me. ESMERALDA: I cant stand this! (Runs to the royal balcony) Your Highness, Your Highness, My Lord!! KING: Whats that? ESMERALDA: Come here, sire! KING: Its the dancing girl! ESMERALDA: I appeal, Your Majesty! KING: Bring her up here. (Guards escort her to the KING) What have you done, child? ESMERALDA: Not I - I appeal for the hunchback! I am the woman he was supposed to have assaulted. Its not true!! KING: (Turns to GAUCHERE) This man is being whipped for assaulting a Gypsy? GAUCHERE: That was the decision of the court, my Lord. ESMERALDA: But he is innocent!! KING: A Gypsy?!? GAUCHERE: We must protect our citizens. It acts as a lesson to those who would assault a real woman. KING: Oh, very well. ESMERALDA: (as she is being dragged out by the guards) But Your Highness Your Highness! The hunchback is innocent!! (The crowd finishes counting the strokes of the whip. OFFICIAL comes forward again) OFFICIAL: The prisoner will be exposed to one full hour of public display! (Crowd starts pelting QUASIMODO as he is turned on the pillory. He calls out for Water! but the crowd repeat his words mockingly back at him.) BOY: Heres your water! (He throws a wet cloth over QUASIMODO, covering his face and shoulders. QUASIMODO appeals soundlessly to FROLLO, but the archdeacon turns his gaze away. ESMERALDA ascends to the pillory, takes a bucket of water, dips her hands within and sprinkles the water over his face. After an initial period of wariness, she lets him bend over to lap the water directly out of her hands.) GUARD: Thats enough! (Pushes ESMERALDA roughly out of the way) The hour is up! (ESMERALDA is pushed back down the steps, and QUASIMODO is untied and let free. He stumbles up the cathedral steps. Within the cathedral we see him limping over to a shrine, where he collapses. FROLLO walks over to him) QUASIMODO: She she gave me water!! (He starts to cry. FROLLO kneels down beside him and cradles him) (Scene: Entrance of Notre-Dame. The KING and minister GAUCHERE are seen walking up the steps, where FROLLO greets them.) FROLLO: Your Majesty. KING: Eminence. FROLLO: Minister. (Turns: both follow him inside) KING: How long has it been since my coronation? Ten years? Youve hidden yourself away all this time. Ive missed your presence at Court. FROLLO: But this is where I am happiest, Your Majesty. Within these walls. Everything I need is here. But - it should not be so unusual to see you within these walls. KING: Ah yes! But Ive been bound up with affairs of this world, secure that you are taking care of the affairs of the next. Now I must see why my High Minister keeps asking me to come down here. (FROLLO gestures them towards a dark corner and pulls off drapery to reveal an old, dusty machine.) KING: Doesnt look like much. GAUCHERE: The German inventor Gutenberg called it a printing press, Your Maj FROLLO: Oh the Germans, the Germans! Only the Germans could have invented such a damnable contraption. KING: Damnable? Its just a machine! FROLLO: Made in Hell. GAUCHERE: Monseigneur FROLLO: This machine could topple a kingdom. Your kingdom. KING: Come, come, Claude, dont exaggerate! (FROLLO reaches up, pulls a lever on the press and then fetches a paper from beneath) Whats this?

FROLLO: Its the first page of the book they were printing when we seized this monstrosity. Liberty: A Call For Freedom. KING: Who wrote this? FROLLO: Does it matter? With the press, anyone can become an author. Anyones opinions can be as important as anyone elses. That is the danger to my King. GAUCHERE: Say what you really mean! This isnt about political pamphlets, its about the suppression of knowledge! FROLLO: Wrong! Wrong, sir! You are wrong. I love knowledge. It is my catechism: science, history, drama. Knowledge is the true purpose of the Church. Come. (Leads them back into the lighted cloisters) In our library we have books that have survived the burning of the libraries of Alexandria. Books that contain knowledge that has no other record. Books, Your Majesty, that are written by Man, by the hand of Man not by a machine. GAUCHERE: The press can distribute that knowledge to the masses more easily. FROLLO: Easy? Easy? Your Majesty, easy is a trap. When attaining knowledge becomes easy, when a man has no longer to labour a year over a single tome, when people no longer seek knowledge in our cathedral libraries, when it sits between leather covers on mantels in every home, then it will have no value. So, everyone will have books? Those books will be worthless. KING: An impassioned plea, old friend. But if the cathedrals are the handwriting of the past, this press is of our time. I wont do anything to stop its growth. FROLLO: You mean You will rescind your fathers solemn pledge to me to support the Church in the banning of printed books? Your Majesty! If we do not break the press, then nothing will be of value. GAUCHERE: Im not such a fool. I will drag this country into the sixteenth century. FROLLO: And I will protect France against printed books as I have protected France against witches, sorcerers and gypsies in the past. GAUCHERE: There are no witches or sorcerers in France! FROLLO: (triumphant smirk) Exactly. Your Majesty. (FROLLO leaves. Both the KING and GAUCHERE leave the cathedral as QUASIMODO begins to ring the bells. Scene changes to a cell in which FROLLO stands, stripped to the waist, with a cat onine tails in his hand. Seeing a crucifix, he angrily scourges it twice with the whip then he falls to his knees before it, appalled at himself.) FROLLO: Oh God... (Scene: Place de Notre Dame. Night. ESMERALDA runs in, running to keep pace with her goat. There is a silhouette of a cloaked figure not far behind her.) ESMERALDA: Djali, youve dragged me all over Paris! Come on, stop! You have to learn to walk like a lady! (The bells of the Cathedral start to sound: she stops, crosses herself and starts to pray.) Holy Lady of this land, I ask for forgiveness. An innocent was tortured because of me. VOICE: I can give you absolution. (ESMERALDA turns) Esmeralda? ESMERALDA: Whos there? FROLLO: (Who has concealed himself in a nearby caravan) An admirer. Someone who has seen you dance. It was a day ago. I heard the sound of music my window looked out onto the square and there I saw a creature dance, a creature so perfect that God himself would have preferred her to the Virgin, would have wished to have been born of her. And that creature was you, my angel. ESMERALDA: (Moving closer to the caravan) What do you want of me? FROLLO: The lines of your body, moving to the music, reached feelings long buried within me. Feelings I believed I had purged from my body, feelings of love. Physical love, base desires Ive not been able to work. Thats when it struck me that you were an angel yes, an angel. But not an angel of light. A dark angel, sent from Hell to destroy me. To destroy me at a time when I have been most directly challenged. I have tried to put you out of my mind, I have tried to do Gods will (Here we see that ESMERALDA has drawn her dagger and is advancing on the caravan) But your image is burned on the inside of my eyelids, as though I had stared too long at the sun. (ESMERALDA reaches the caravan to find it empty. FROLLO appears from behind the caravan, giving her a shock) Thats when I resolved that I must have you or I must rid myself of you. (He reaches to caress ESMERALDAs cheek. She takes his hand in hers and stares at the palm.) ESMERALDA: Death! (She drops her dagger in surprise and flees. FROLLO stares after her, then at his hand, then stoops to retrieve her dagger from the floor.) (Scene- Minister GAUCHEREs bedroom, evening. The Minister is in his nightshirt, sitting in a straight-backed chair, reading by candlelight. So absorbed is he in his book that he does not hear FROLLO enter the room) FROLLO: Reading? GAUCHERE: (shoots out of the chair with a cry of alarm and turns to face him) Dom Frollo! FROLLO: I beg your pardon, but I needed to finish our discussion. GAUCHERE: My servants did not announce you. FROLLO: I saw no-one as I entered. What are you reading? GAUCHERE: I will not hide it from you Monsignor Ficino. FROLLO: Ah, yes. Italian humanism. You know, of course, that you are breaking the law? GAUCHERE: Your law, Monseigneur, which I will endeavour to overturn. The reign of Louis XII will be the reign of change. The world which you seek to protect will be left behind. FROLLO: The world which you seek to make you will never see. GAUCHERE: (laughs) Would you like to wager on that? The King is committed to change. Perhaps you dont understand that. FROLLO: Perhaps it is you that does not understand. This King may change what he will; I meant that you would not live to see it. GAUCHERE: Monseigneur -? FROLLO: Good night, Gauchere. (Kisses him on the forehead) God bless you. (Stabs him. FROLLO leaves GAUCHERE choking on his own blood) (Scene: The Court of Miracles. ESMERALDA comes running down the stairs) ESMERALDA: Pierre! Pierre! GRINGOIRE: I was just looking for you ESMERALDA: I have to hide! There are guards everywhere - theres this man GRINGOIRE: Slow down! Slowly! (We see soldiers riding into the Court and the inhabitants reacting in confusion and panic) CLOPIN: Its the Kings Guard, theyre rounding up all our women! REDHEAD: Theyre destroying everything, even the stuff we didnt steal! GRINGOIRE: Why?

ESMERALDA: Its me they want. CLOPIN: Come on, quick! Quick! (runs off, leading ESMERALDA and GRINGOIRE up some stairs to a door. He gives a signal to the guard at the door who nods) Well go back and distract them. Go! (ESMERALDA and GRINGOIRE run into the night and straight into a party of soldiers on horseback) CAPTAIN: Look, here she is! (Scene: Torture chamber. ESMERALDA is dragged in by two men) ESMERALDA: No! No! But I have done nothing, I have done nothing! Let go of me! INQUISITOR: Peace, child! Theres no need to make this too unpleasant. Please. (Makes a signal to the two men who strap her to a horizontal table) Minister Gauchere was stabbed today with this knife. Does this dagger belong to you? Now theres no need to deny it, many saw it on your person in the public square. ESMERALDA: Oh sir, I am innocent! I am! INQUISITOR: Listen. I must fulfil the duties of my office. (To the men) The boot. ESMERALDA: No!! I didnt do it, I swear I didnt do it! Oh please (The boot is fitted to ESMERALDAs foot) Oh God! INQUISITOR: Ill have to strap her down. Pity. Begin! (The men start to turn the vice that will crush her foot: ESMERALDA screams. FROLLO is seen listening to this exchange from the cell door) Confess! You deny the charges? ESMERALDA: Yes! INQUISITOR: Tighter! You deny the charges? ESMERALDA: Yes! INQUISITOR: Tighter! (The process is repeated: the boot makes a sickening crunching noise. FROLLO listens as ESMERALDA screams loudly) (Scene: The prison cell. ESMERALDA is lying on the straw. She hears a noise and looks up at the blank barred window.) ESMERALDA: Whos there? VOICE: Friend. ESMERALDA: Gringoire, is that you? They say I killed a man, I didnt! VOICE: Did they hurt you? ESMERALDA: Ill be able to walk up the gallows steps. Who is there? VOICE: Are you afraid? ESMERALDA: Yes. But I deserve this. VOICE: Do not fear. You are innocent. You are guilty of nothing. ESMERALDA: Gringoire, is that you? (Both hear the sound of one of the cell doors opening) VOICE: Goodbye. ESMERALDA: Wait! Dont leave, dont leave yet! VOICE: I will set you free. GUARD: Witch! ESMERALDA: What is it? GUARD: A visitor! (Behind him GRINGOIRE is revealed, struggling with guards) GRINGOIRE: Leave me alone, let me see my wife! ESMERALDA: Oh, Gringoire! (Limps to the bars of the cell door) GRINGOIRE: What have they done to you? Tomorrow I go to Louis himself! I love you (Tries to kiss ESMERALDA through the bars, but the guards drag him off) Do not give up hope my darling, I love you! Ill see the King, I promise! ESMERALDA: (quietly, to herself) Who was at the window? (Scene: the gallows set up in front of Notre Dame, morning. Scene changes to a service of Communion within the cathedral: The PRIEST is officiating.) PRIEST: Corpus Dominum nostri, Jesu Christi. (Serves two communicants, then moves along to QUASIMODO) QUASIMODO: Body of Christ... (opens his mouth and receives Communion.) (FROLLO goes to the altar rail and kneels down. PRIEST approaches him. FROLLO opens his mouth to receive Communion, but does not. Instead of placing the Host on FROLLOs tongue, the PRIEST simply glares at him. FROLLO catches the look, gets up and walks silently from the scene) (Scene: Exterior, morning. ESMERALDA is dragged down the steps of the prison and shoved into a wooden cart with the crowds enthusiastic approval. GRINGOIRE breaks free of the crowd to catch ESMERALDAs outstretched hand. The cart approaches the Royal carriage.) ESMERALDA: My King! My King! My King! Youve always been kind to the destitute. I kneel before you, innocent of crime. KING: Take her away! ESMERALDA: No! (The cart continues on its progress. We see QUASIMODO watching as the cart stops at the gallows, ESMERALDA is dragged up onto the platform and her head fitted into the noose. The OFFICIAL spreads his arms wide) OFFICIAL: Let it be heard that this woman, known as La Esmeralda, a gypsy of the streets of the world, is to be hung by the neck until dead for taking the life of Monsieur Julien Gauchere. Thereafter the body will remain on the scaffold for two days of public display! (During this speech we see QUASIMODO operating the platform-pulley system that allows him to descend from the Cathedral. FROLLO ascends the scaffold in his priests robes) FROLLO: Are you ready for absolution, my child? ESMERALDA: You. FROLLO (loudly) Do you confess your sins in the eyes of God, that He may guide your soul to Heaven? (quietly whispers) I can still save you. Give yourself over to me, to the Church. We can give you sanctuary. ESMERALDA: As yours? (FROLLO nods) Never! FROLLO: (to the crowd) She has refused absolution! (A cry of horror goes up from the crowd. FROLLO turns back to his victim and mutters:) May God have mercy on your soul. OFFICIAL: Drums! (The drums begin. ESMERALDA stands stiffly on the gallows. GRINGOIRE attempts to get to her but is forced back by the crowd. QUASIMODO swings down from the scaffolding of the Cathedral, lands on the gallows, unhoops the noose from ESMERALDAs neck and swings back to Notre-Dame with ESMERALDA over his shoulder) QUASIMODO: Sanctuary! Sanctuary! Sanctuary!

FROLLO: Quasimodo (The crowd watches as QUASIMODO carries his burden across the roof. FROLLO turns and heads towards the Cathedral, as does the CAPTAIN) CAPTAIN: (to his men) Follow me! (rides toward Notre-Dame) PRIEST: Inside, all of you! Get inside, quick! (The monks and priests all turn and run into the Cathedral, bolting it fast against the soldiers. Some soldiers hold back the crowd, the rest assemble at the door of Notre-Dame with their CAPTAIN) PRIEST (opens the grille in the door) Get away from this door! CAPTAIN: Give us the gypsy witch and the hunchback. QUASIMODO: Sanctuary! Sanctuary! Sanctuary! (All look above: QUASIMODO is holding ESMERALDA lengthwise above his head. GRINGOIRE shouts Yes!; QUASIMODO laughs.) QUASIMODO: Sanctuary! CAPTAIN: (to his men) Fire!! (The soldiers send up a hail of crossbow bolts. In reply QUASIMODO drags a long wooden beam across to the edge of the half-built tower and throws it over. It lands, narrowly missing one of the soldiers) CAPTAIN: Pick it up! Well batter the door down! (QUASIMODO runs back to the cauldrons as the men batter the central door of the Cathedral. We see the PRIEST and others supporting the door with their weight, but the battering ram is wearing down the bolt on the inside) QUASIMODO: Molten lead, molten lead, molten lead... (He grasps the lever by the cauldron, pulls it back and the lead courses through the mouths of the gargoyles onto the soldiers below. We see the bodies of those unlucky enough to get caught in the fatal shower: their colleagues run over and pull them clear of the doorway. The crowd repeats QUASIMODOs cry of Sanctuary!) CAPTAIN: Break that door down! (The men pick up the battering ram and swing at the door again, but on the second attempt the door opens and FROLLO stands in the entrance. His presence alone is enough to make the soldiers back away from the Cathedral and put down the beam. He walks forward, following them down into the square.) FROLLO: This is the House of God! (Crowd silently disperses. FROLLO turns back and looks grimly up at the belltower) (Scene: inside the bell-tower. ESMERALDA is sleeping. She walks up with a gasp to see QUASIMODO regarding her. He puts a bundle of cloth on the bed in front of her, then leaves. ESMERALDA shakes it out to reveal a white dress.) (Scene: in the nave of Notre-Dame. FROLLO kneels and lifts his arms) FROLLO: Esmeralda (Scene: inside the bell-tower. QUASIMODO gives ESMERALDA a plate of food.) QUASIMODO: Eat. Eat. Im going away, so you wont have to see my ugly face when youre eating. (Stumbles away: ESMERALDA follows him) ESMERALDA: Wait! Please wait! Wait! (Catches up to QUASIMODO) Thank you. (Leads him back into the room) QUASIMODO: You called me back. ESMERALDA: Youre burnt! (Examines his palms, then starts to bandage them) QUASIMODO: Thank you. ESMERALDA: Can you understand what I say? QUASIMODO: Yes. ESMERALDA: I thought you were deaf. QUASIMODO: I am! You think that is the last straw, dont you? Yes. To be made this way, and deaf as well. Its truly horrible. ESMERALDA: Its not that QUASIMODO: Yes. I am deaf, you know. (giggles) Anyway, I shall soon know what you want, from the movement of your lips, from your eyes. ESMERALDA: Tell me why did you rescue me? QUASIMODO: You ask me why I rescued you. You have forgotten a poor devil on that infamous pillory. A drop of water and a little compassion. I would pay for less than that with my life. You forgot that poor devil, but he remembered. Look, look! Look! (Runs to the rafters in the next room and peers through the slats at the world below. ESMERALDA follows him.) People down there! Little people. They would have killed you they still will, if you ever leave the church. ESMERALDA: Its no use. The King would force them to give me up. QUASIMODO: That would kill me. Weve got very high towers someone who fell from them would be dead before he struck the ground. When you want me to fall, you wont have to say a single word. A look will do. ESMERALDA: (caresses his head gently) You dont understand. I never want you to be harmed. QUASIMODO: Thank you. You will be safe yet. Look! Look up there! (breaks away to run to the bell-chamber, dragging ESMERALDA with him) Friends! Come, come, look! Homer! Euclid! Dante! (pats the biggest bell tenderly) Big Marie! Shes mother to them all. She made me deaf, you know. I can hear my friends. Shall I play them for you? (He pushes them and they start to resound. ESMERALDA yells STOP!! and puts her hands over her ears, but QUASIMODO continues, leaping on a bell and riding it as it swings. He then jumps back down to ESMERALDAs level again.) QUASIMODO: What did you think? ESMERALDA: Beautiful. QUASIMODO: Thank you. Why do they call you La Esmeralda? ESMERALDA: Thats my name. QUASIMODO: What does the word mean? ESMERALDA: Emerald. What does Quasimodo mean? QUASIMODO: Almost made. No. That is my own private joke. Its the holiday Dom Frollo took me in, almost twenty years ago. Quasimodo is the first Sunday after Easter. Low Sunday. Are your parents alive? ESMERALDA: No. QUASIMODO: Do you miss them? ESMERALDA: I never knew them. I miss my goat, though. My parents are like an old dream.

QUASIMODO: My parents I never knew. Being not blind, but merely dumb of love, they abandoned me to die on the steps of this building. Dom Frollo was a reverend then, not Archdeacon. He took me out of the sight of men, for that I am thankful. The books in the library below became my only companions. Ive read every one of them. Thanks to them, today I have many friends. Through Cicero, to the [cannot make out these words] they taught me scholastics, poetics, rhythmics and even hermetics. That wisdom of wisdoms. Im writing a book. It will have over six hundred pages when Im finished. ESMERALDA: Ive never seen a book before. (QUASIMODO fetches a large bound book and places it on her lap. She opens it and looks awkwardly at the pages) What does it say? I cannot read. QUASIMODO: Its Latin. Plutarchs Lives. ESMERALDA: It was you at the window of my cell. QUASIMODO: Yes. Never have I seen my ugliness as I do now, when I compare myself to you. I feel very sorry for the foolish, unhappy monster that I am. You are like a drop of dew, the song of a bird! While I am something frightful. (ESMERALDA shakes her head) Hard. More downtrodden. I am not a beast, I am not an animal. (begins to laugh hysterically) I am about as shapeless as the Man in the Moon! (recovers) Come! Come! Rest, rest. All will be well! If you dont leave here they cant catch you! No-one can get in here, I wouldnt let them! If youre afraid, pull the rope I can hear the bell. (Leaves) (Scene: The cellar of the Court of Miracles. A crowd enters, pullingQUASIMODO down a ramp to where CLOPIN stands) CLOPIN: All right, back! He helped Esmeralda! QUASIMODO: You are the speaker? CLOPIN: No, no! Him. GRINGOIRE: I am the speaker. How is she? QUASIMODO: Shes fine. She asks for you. (hands GRINGOIRE a bundle of papers) GRINGOIRE: Whats this? QUASIMODO: Pardon. People of Paris. Quickly, please? GRINGOIRE: (reads) Parisians, day after day innocent people disappear Some die on the gallows, others are buried alive in dungeons... QUASIMODO: Yes. GRINGOIRE: You wrote this? QUASIMODO: I! I! (points to himself) CLOPIN: Is there nothing we can get you? QUASIMODO: Yes. Her goat. (CLOPIN eyes QUASIMODO oddly for a second before fetching the goat and handing the lead to him. QUASIMODO bends over and hugs the goat to him) QUASIMODO: Thank you. Thank you. Come! (He leaves with the goat and many of the crowd who follow him back up the ramp out of the Court. GRINGOIRE is left with the bundle of papers) GRINGOIRE: Your Highness. Hope! (SCENE: The Kings Court.) KING: (crumples a paper into a ball) These pamphlets are being distributed by thieves, craftsmen and students throughout Paris! FROLLO: (who is reading another pamphlet) The product of a printing press, sire! KING: Well, you must have missed one! FROLLO: Yes. Yes, I I am not perfect. KING: Look out of the window! Paris is tearing itself down there. Common people are calling for me to pardon this gypsy. My fellow nobles demand justice. They call for me to suspend sanctuary. FROLLO: That would be a terrible precedent. KING: She killed my High Minister! FROLLO: Your Majesty, Gauchere and I were not of like minds, but believe me in this, I want nothing more than to see this woman punished. KING: I will continue the ban on printed books, and the presses necessary to create them. FROLLO (kisses the KING on the forehead) God bless you. I knew that you would. I will find the people responsible for these pamphlets, and I will deal with them. KING: Claude! What am I supposed to do about this gypsy woman? FROLLO: Prepare to administer justice to her in the morning. KING: But the law of sanctuary FROLLO: - says that you cannot take her from the church! (leaves) (SCENE: Notre-Dame. FROLLO pulls the cloth free of the printing-press, then puts his fingers against the inking pad and stares at his hand, then up at the ceiling) FROLLO: Quasimodo (shouts) QUASIMODO!!!!! (SCENE: QUASIMODO climbs up the wooden steps to the bell-loft with Djali the goat in his arms, calling for ESMERALDA. He tethers the goat to a post and then runs through the bell-tower, along the exterior of the cathedral and finally into the nave, all the while shouting her name) (SCENE: FROLLO is praying before a crucifix in his cell) FROLLO: Clamavi a te, Domine... (The door opens behind him) Come in, Quasimodo. QUASIMODO: Father, where is the gypsy? Where is she? FROLLO: You used the printing press. QUASIMODO: I needed to. FROLLO: You broke the law. QUASIMODO: I had to. She is innocent. Where is she? FROLLO: You violated my most sacred law. QUASIMODO: Please... Where is Esmeralda? FROLLO: On her way to the gallows. QUASIMODO (turns away to the window, where he can see a gallows being erected in the square below) You gave her up to the King. Why? FROLLO: For justice. QUASIMODO: She is not guilty. FROLLO: She is evil!

QUASIMODO: No! (breaks down in tears) No, no, no! FROLLO: Quasimodo she caused the Ministers death. She made me do it. The madness in my body she created it. She made me a murderer, and for that she must die. QUASIMODO: She should die for your crime? Have you no pity? FROLLO: Pity? Pity? Oh Quasimodo, pity me! To be a man of God, and to love a woman - and to love her more than God. To love her with all the fury of my soul! And to feel that I would give my blood, my reputation, my salvation, my immortality eternity! - for the least of her smiles, and to know that all I can offer her is a filthy priests cassock. To feel her, night and day, in your dreams, and see her fall in love with another! To see that body, whose contours scorch you, and those breasts, with all their softness - that flesh, that throbs and quivers beneath anothers kisses! Do you know the torture you can be made to endure through long nights by a bursting heart? QUASIMODO: Why do you think I did not know such things? Has your search for the light made you blind? FROLLO: She destroyed my work! My vows! She came between God and me! She proved that I have lived a wasted life I was not worthy of Gods work. (sinks to his knees on the floor) Pity me, Quasimodo. QUASIMODO: (approaches and hugs FROLLO gently) You are pitiable, but I have no pity for you. You are not Saint Augustine. Yours is a torment you take for yourself and can end by choice. Come. We will tell this story in the Hall of Justice. FROLLO: NO!!! I will be rid of her! (takes the scourge and lashes QUASIMODO with it three times, drawing blood) I will! I will! Shes cursed you too, shes made us both murderers! Fool! Do you think that she could love you? QUASIMODO: Father FROLLO: I am not your father! Your father was wiser than I! He abandoned you, he left you to die! It was I who gave you life. You are a freak! (makes to scourge QUASIMODO again, but this time the hunchback seizes his arm to prevent him. The two men stare at one another) QUASIMODO: I am not a freak. (SCENE: The Place de Notre-Dame. ESMERALDA is taken up to the scaffold) OFFICIAL: Let it be known that this woman (he is interrupted by ESMERALDA spitting in his face. CROWD laughs) (Meanwhile the blond CAPTAIN is seen riding his horse to the Royal Balcony, and the King and his retinue turn to watch his arrival) KING: Whats this? CAPTAIN: The beggars are going to attack the Palace! Hundreds of them are rioting. KING: The people are actually rioting over this? (BEGGARS, led by GRINGOIRE, swarm into the square chanting Esmeralda! Esmeralda! As the KING watches they distribute pamphlets, disarm the guards, climb the scaffold and remove the noose from ESMERALDAs neck. The CROWD cheers. CLOPIN climbs on top of a carriages roof and whistles for attention) CLOPIN: I summon you, Louis the Twelfth, to give up the gypsy girl! The citizens of Paris have come to save her from the nobles who want to hang her! KING: Whats all this about? Who are you? CLOPIN: I am Clopin, King of Paris! (CROWD cheers) GRINGOIRE: Sire! My lord! KING: And who are you? GRINGOIRE: Sire the Gypsy girl is innocent! KING: If she is innocent, then who is the real murderer? QUASIMODO: PARIS!!! (Everyone looks up to the uppermost balcony of Notre-Dame and gasps at what they see. QUASIMODO has grasped FROLLO by the shoulders and is dangling him precariously from the edge of the balcony.) QUASIMODO: Say it. FROLLO: (Huskily) Never never! QUASIMODO: Say you did it. FROLLO: She will die with me. QUASIMODO: Youll die without absolution. Tell the truth. Please. The truth. FROLLO: (loudly) It was I!! (CROWD shouts angrily) } ESMERALDA: Yes, it was him!! Murderer! KING: People of Paris! Allow the gypsy to approach me. (KING and QUEEN descend from their balcony and walk towards GRINGOIRE and ESMERALDA) I believe you, child. You are pardoned. GRINGOIRE: Parisians, shes free, weve won!! (CROWD cheers. ESMERALDA looks up at the tower. We see FROLLO and QUASIMODO at the top of Notre-Dame, still locked in the same position. By now QUASIMODO has pulled the other safely back onto the floor, away from the edge.) FROLLO: Now you forgive me? QUASIMODO: Yes. (ESMERALDA is seen running inside the cathedral. She reaches the top and all three stand staring at each other. FROLLO reaches for a masons knife left lying on a surface) FROLLO: I must rid myself of her. QUASIMODO: No! (He grabs hold of FROLLOs arm and is stabbed accidentally by the knife in that hand) ESMERALDA: Quasimodo no! Quasimodo! (She grasps hold of FROLLO. FROLLO pushes her to the ground, then stares at the blood on his hand and at QUASIMODO lying wounded on the ground.) FROLLO: Quasimodo? QUASIMODO: Father... (FROLLO turns to attack ESMERALDA with the knife but QUASIMODO jumps up to prevent him, dragging both himself and FROLLO over the edge of the balcony. ESMERALDA rushes to the edge and sees FROLLO lying dead on the ground below, with QUASIMODO hanging by his fingertips from a gargoyle.) QUASIMODO: Goodbye. ESMERALDA: I wont let you go! (GRINGOIRE appears and helps ESMERALDA pull QUASIMODO to safety.) (SCENE: Inside QUASIMODOs chamber. QUASIMODO is lying on his bed with ESMERALDA and GRINGOIRE on either side of him)

ESMERALDA: Quasimodo QUASIMODO: Life leaves me... Its too deep. (ESMERALDAs hand goes to the wound in QUASIMODOs stomach, but QUASIMODO instead pulls her hand across to lie on his heart.) QUASIMODO: Not there... here. (His gaze goes to the gargoyles above his bed) Why was I not made of stone like thee? Why? ESMERALDA: Your friends will sing for you. (She and GRINGOIRE leave his side and go to a nearby bell-rope. As they ring the bell together, QUASIMODO dies.) THE END