31 Plays and 31 Days, #17 - “Liege Man of Life and Limb”

[breakinglight11]

A major theme in the series has been the fear of aging, which has been haunting Mrs. Hawking as a middle aged superhero for many years now. When we first meet her in 1880, she’s forty, and she is already being treated like an old lady because of the standards of Victorian society even though she is vital and fit. We bring up her concern of the future as early as part II: Vivat Regina, when she expresses her hope that in making Mary her protege, her work will be carried on when the day comes when she cannot do it anymore. Aging and the accompanying physical breakdown are explicitly discussed in part III: Base Instruments, when an injury reminds her that she will not be able to break her body forever. The fear manifests again in minor fashion in part V: Mrs. Frost, to be deliberately invoked and examined in part VI: Fallen Women, when Mrs. Frost asks her if she really thinks she can be a fifty-year-old superhero still battering her body the way she did when she was twenty.

Now, while I haven’t totally nailed down the year in part 7, Mrs. Hawking will be at least fifty years old, and recovering from serious injury. She will be staring down the barrel of everything she’s been afraid of for the last ten years. And she will have to deal with probably the hardest thing possible for this character— what will she do when she can no longer do all the things that have formed the backbone of her identity?

This leads us to day’s piece, which will be very important scene imaged for the eventual Mrs. Hawking part 7, between our hero and Nathaniel. Much of it was inspired by a moment in The Crown, where love is expressed in terms of the duty it entails. This scene is about a different kind of love, but I thought that it captured something similar in how Nathaniel’s devotion manifests. Their relationship is one that came as a surprise to both of them— that Mrs. Hawking should come to rely on this young man who was thrust into her life only because of her loathed late husband, and who reminds her so much of that man, and that Nathaniel should come to believe his destiny was to support the work of this strange and difficult woman.

This needs some refining. But I think it has the potential to be tremendously powerful.


Photo by Daniel Fox

Day #17 - “Liege Man of Life and Limb”
From Mrs. Hawking part 7
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~

VICTORIA HAWKING, lady’s champion of London, early fifties
NATHANIEL HAWKING, her nephew and assistant, mid thirties

London, England, 1890
~~~

MRS. HAWKING: How old were you? When first we began all this, how old?

NATHANIEL: Twenty-five. Twenty-five, when first I knew.

MRS. HAWKING: When I was twenty-five, I could fight all night and plot all the next day. Now… now it’s all quizzing glasses and braced bones, and I feel as though I’m made of matchsticks.

NATHANIEL: I’m sorry. I… I hardly know what else to say.

MRS. HAWKING: Talking doesn’t change things. I knew it was coming. Every ache and pain reminded me that the day would come when I couldn’t keep it up. Five more years, I told myself. If I could only get five more years… but it’s been that and more.

NATHANIEL: It’s not your fault. This is what happens. No one can break their body forever.

MRS. HAWKING: It isn’t as if I didn’t know. I’ve always known, since the very first time I slipped from a rooftop and struck every gable on the way down. Since the first time I battered down four men and had the fifth catch me in back. For a time, I thought it was all right, because the future was secure. It wouldn’t have to all hang on me. But now… without Mary…

NATHANIEL: Mary learned what you had to teach.

MRS. HAWKING: Perhaps. But she’s made it clear she’s gone another way.

(Pause.)

MRS. HAWKING: Nathaniel, my boy… what am I to do?

NATHANIEL: Are you asking me?

MRS. HAWKING: Who else could I?

(Pause.)

NATHANIEL: You know… I didn’t understand things, when first we began this work. Just what you needed from me, if I was truly to be of help. My wits, my back… (Sighing) I used to think that, in bringing Mary to you, I’d seen you were taken care of. But I see now, that’s not for Mary… she has other things to do. Because that’s my job— you. To keep you together, to see that you’re well, is the essence of my duty. Because heaven knows you won’t do it yourself.

MRS. HAWKING: Indeed? Well, forgive me for the burden I’ve been to you!

NATHANIEL: It is a burden. And one I bear gladly— if only to have some part in the great work you do for the world. And I’ve done it to see that it goes on, because I believe in it, and you. So I hope you know by now, ten years on, that I am for you. Liege man of life and limb, to live and die against all manner of folk.

(He kneels, like a knight before his queen.)

NATHANIEL: So I pray that you will hear me when I say… if you go on the way that you have, it will break you. Wreck you, ruin you, forever and for good. I believe that from the bottom of my soul. And when it does… I don’t know how I will put you back together. So please, please, Mrs. Hawking. Aunt Victoria. My beloved, my lord commander, and my liege. Hear me when I say that we must find some other way.