breakinglight11 | 31 Plays in 31 Days, #18

This I whipped together late the other night. It's a scene from the past, where the Colonel is confronted by his brother Ambrose. The idea came from thinking about how Ambrose likely heard through his society connections that his brother would be offered the knighthood, and be so delighted by that fact that when he heard Reginald turned it down, he would march over there and give him hell for it. It's very rough and banged out, but it's interesting to think about these things that shaped the events that actually featured in the text of the plays.

Day #18 - "No Knights"
By Phoebe Roberts

REGINALD HAWKING, the Colonel
AMBROSE HAWKING, his older brother

London, England, 1876
~~~

(The Colonel REGINALD HAWKING sits in his study with a glass of brandy and a decanter. There is a knock at the door.)

REGINALD: Yes, Chapman?

(Enter his older brother AMBROSE HAWKING.)

AMBROSE: For God’s sake, man!

REGINALD: Sweet Christ. Whatever do you want?

AMBROSE: You’ve been dodging me for days. Won’t see me, won’t take my letters. What did you expect me to do?

REGINALD: Take the hint, perhaps?

AMBROSE: Have you completely lost your mind?

REGINALD: Years ago, if your view is to be believed.

AMBROSE: Is it true what they’re telling me?

REGINALD: I don’t even know who they are.

AMBROSE: Reginald! Don’t be an ass! Is it true you’re turning down the knighthood?

REGINALD: Good God. How did you even hear about that?

AMBROSE: Sanders and Claiborne told me. They heard it straight from her Majesty’s secretary.

REGINALD: I’d no idea you were all such gossips.

AMBROSE: Are you joking? I’ve been anticipating this for weeks now. Everyone was talking about how it was coming down the pike. And then you go and toss it aside without a word to anyone? Did you think I’d have nothing to say about it?

REGINALD: It’s none of your affair.

AMBROSE: None of my affair? Do you have any idea what a knighthood would do for this family? It would put the Hawking name on the map!

REGINALD: I thought we did that all by ourselves, by our own bootstraps. Isn’t that what you like to say?

AMBROSE: It’s one of the highest honors of the empire. For a soldier— Reginald, what more could you ever wish for?

REGINALD: Nothing. Nothing more.

AMBROSE: It’s— recognition! Recognition of everything you’ve done in service to queen and country.

REGINALD: There’s the rub, isn’t it? Everything I’ve done.

AMBROSE: Then— why would you do such a thing?

REGINALD: Because I don’t want it.

AMBROSE: Don’t want it!? It’s all you’ve ever wanted! Ever since you joined the service! To do great deeds! To be a hero!

REGINALD: But it’s not. Because it wasn’t like you think. It wasn’t like I thought either.

AMBROSE: Surely— surely you can’t mean you… didn’t do those things, during your time.

REGINALD: Not that. And that’s the trouble. I did every damn thing.

AMBROSE: I don’t understand you.

REGINALD: No. But if you don’t, I can’t explain. But there can be no knighthood for it.

AMBROSE: My God. What is all this, Reginald?

REGINALD: Leave it be, Ambrose.

AMBROSE: No. No. I can’t bear it. It seems every year it grows a little worse.

REGINALD: Oh, spare me.

AMBROSE: I thought you were just weary of campaign. I thought perhaps the strain might leave you if you settled at last. But it was when you put on all the weight that I began to worry.

REGINALD: I’m comfortable. You’ve packed it on yourself in the last few years.

(REGINALD picks up his glass but AMBROSE snatches it out of his hands.)

AMBROSE: And there’s this.

REGINALD: Oh, go on.

AMBROSE: You never drank like this before. Not in your life.

REGINALD: I’m retired now. I see no reason to live as if I’m forever on campaign.

AMBROSE: What’s happened to you, Reginald?

REGINALD: I’ve got older. I’d have a good look in the mirror, if I were you, since it’s happened to you too.

AMBROSE: No. You’re not the man you used to be.

REGINALD: Well, that’s certain.

AMBROSE: What’s done it? What’s… broken you down so?

(Pause.)

AMBROSE: I know you don’t want me to say it. But you know what I think.

REGINALD: Oh, not this again.

AMBROSE: The man I know worked all his life to be worthy of a knighthood. He wouldn’t have cast it aside as if it were nothing.

(Pause.)

AMBROSE: She didn’t— did she… say anything—?

REGINALD: Oh, for God’s sake!

AMBROSE: Because if she did anything to make you think—

REGINALD: Of course not! Must you blame her for absolutely everything?

AMBROSE: Anyone with eyes can see what she’s like.

REGINALD: Ah, yes? And what’s that?

AMBROSE: Do you want me to say it again?

REGINALD: You never seem to tire of it.

AMBROSE: That’s where all this started.

REGINALD: Don’t talk about things you know nothing about.

AMBROSE: I see what she does to you! You’re cut to ribbons by that bitch.

(At that word, REGINALD is on him in a flash.)

REGINALD: How dare you?

AMBROSE: Easy, old boy!

REGINALD: You must think I’ve gone soft, if you think I won’t knock you on your arse for that.

AMBROSE: All right, I’m sorry.

(REGINALD backs off.)

REGINALD: I would never talk about your wife the way you talk about mine. I would never.

AMBROSE: I hope you would. If Margaret ever did to me what that woman does to you.

REGINALD: Why does it always have to come back to this?

AMBROSE: Because whatever it is between you, it eats at you, I’ve seen it.

REGINALD: And what’s that got to do with the price of tea in China?

AMBROSE: Reginald, if she’s run you down and made you think you don’t deserve this—

REGINALD: How many ways can I tell you this? It’s my damn knighthood, and it’s my decision. And since it’s my career we’re talking about, nobody knows it better than me.

AMBROSE: I wish you’d only explain to me—

REGINALD: I’ve explained myself enough to you. You never hear me anyway.

AMBROSE: Reginald—

REGINALD: I’m tired of this. Ambrose, you can either drop this and have a brandy with me, or you can march right on out.

(Pause. AMBROSE sits beside him and pours himself another class.)

AMBROSE: You ought to be a knight, Reg. There’s no one who deserved it more.

REGINALD: Then there are no knights, Bo.

(They drink together in silence.)

31 Plays in 31 Days, #18 - "No Knights"