Tag: Civilian

Guest I: Good evening, Gonfaloniere.
Uberto: To you as well. I trust you’re enjoying yourselves?
Guest I: Indeed! A nice distraction from that nasty business with the Auditore family.
Uberto: And to think I once thought of Giovanni as a brother…
Guest I: Don’t blame yourself! How could you have known what evils he planned?
Guest II: I say we strike that traitor’s name from the record books. Let history forget he ever even existed.
Uberto: Hmmm. Yes, I should look into that.
If you’ll excuse me for a moment…

(I forgot that civilians take 6 years to walk from one place to another…)

Beatrice: Uberto! A moment of your time?
Uberto: Anything for you, Beatrice.
Beatrice: (Snort laughs) So! Tell us! How does it feel to be a hero?
Uberto: Please, I am no such thing. As Gonfaloniere it is my duty to ensure that the city of Firenze remains a shining beacon of justice. Corruption and its ilk shall find no purchase here so long as I am in control.
Beatrice: You are a treasure, Uberto! I hope Lorenzo recognizes that!
Uberto: Yes… our great leader, Lorenzo. I’ll see you ladies later.

(3 years later…)

Guest III: Ah, Uberto! There you are. I was just telling the other about the execution…
Guest IV: I mean no offense, but… what if they did not act alone?
Uberto: You can rest easy, friends. I am confident that this treachery began and ended with the Auditore family.
Guest V: What of the other son? Ezio, was it?
Uberto: The child poses no danger. Soft hands and an even softer head. He’ll be caught and executed before the week is out.
Guest III: Don’t let us keep you, Uberto. We just wanted to say hello.

(Yet they start bolting the moment Ezio starts speedwalking…)

Guest VI: Evening to you, Gonfaloniere.
Uberto: Is everything to your satisfaction?
Guest VI: Do you even need to ask? Of course!
Guest VII: Accept our thanks – for this evening – and for helping to keep Firenze safe. I always had my doubts about the Auditore.
Where did the family even come from? To gain such wealth and … and prestige in… in a single generation?
Guest VI: And the children – with their odd names. Always making trouble.
Guest VII: No surprise, given the company their father kept; whores and thieves, I swear it!
Uberto: Indeed. It is clear now he sought to undermine the city – to overturn all we’ve worked so hard to build.
Guest VII: But thanks to you, that’s over now.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

‘Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!’

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought –
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

Carroll: ‘And, as in uffish thought he stood’–er, yes?

Child: What’s a Bandersnatch?

Carroll: I haven’t decided yet, but I know that it’s fearsome and it has a taste for children.

Child: Oh!

Carroll: Where was I? Ah–

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

[A child gasps]

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

Children: Ugh, horrible!
Its head? Ugh…
How dreadful!
He gave that monster one four!

‘And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’
He chortled in his joy.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Carroll: Do you like it? I hope to publish it soon.

Child: I like that the way it sounds, but I don’t understand the words.

Carroll: That’s because it’s a nonsense poem!

Child: Right you are…

Carroll: Excellent! I’d like to read you all another. Listen carefully and tell me what you think. I think I’m gonna call it ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’. Everyone settled in? Then let’s begin…

Note: He just repeats the poem at this point.