Free William Shakespeare's The Phantom Menace by Ian Doescher Page A

sir, is’t well with you?
    OBI-WAN
    â€”What was the thing?
    QUI-GON
    I am not certain, merely do I know
    That it was trainèd well in Jedi arts.
    Belike it hither came to take our queen—
    And, lo, the game it plays is dangerous.
    ANAKIN
    What shall we do?
    QUI-GON
    â€”For now we bide our time,
    And strive for calm and patience in all things.
    Young Anakin Skywalker, I present
    My strong apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi.
    ANAKIN
    Well met, dear sir. Are you a Jedi, too?
    OBI-WAN
    Indeed, my lad, as well thou mayest be.
    QUI-GON
    Together we shall this new threat confront—
    Belike we’ll answers find on Coruscant.
    [Exeunt .

SCENE 4.
    On the planet Naboo .
    Enter N UTE G UNRAY , S IO B IBBLE , OOM-9, and other GUARD DROIDS .
    NUTE
    Your queen is lost, your people feebly starve,
    And it appears their governor—e’en you—
    May not outlive them. Truth, your life is mine,
    A prize that I do mean to claim anon.
    SIO
    Your ill-advis’d attack shall gain you nil.
    Naboo is proudly a democracy:
    Its citizens decide, and they did speak
    Decisively enough against your rule.
    NUTE
    Your insolence offends. [ To guards: ] Take him away!
    [Exeunt several guards with Sio Bibble .
    OOM-9
    My troops have ta’en position in the swamps,
    Where they seek out the underwater towns
    About which rumor hath been spread of late.
    What hidden is shall soon revealèd be.
    NUTE
    I thank thee, Captain: thy words ease my mind.
    Make me a full report of what they find.
    [Exeunt .

SCENE 5.
    Aboard the Naboo cruiser and on the planet Coruscant .
    Enter R UMOR .
    RUMOR
    Whilst cruelly doth the Federation find
    Excuse to starve Naboo’s poor, conquer’d hordes,
    Fear starts to rise within each troubl’d mind—
    Look ye, and see how Rumor knots her cords.
    Young Anakin by guilt is overrun,
    Thinks he of her he left with sad regret.
    Old Qui-Gon and the younger Obi-Wan
    Consider this portentous recent threat.
    O, how fleet Rumor does her labor—see?—
    Runs to and fro to make them sick with fear.
    Unsung is my impact on history,
    Such times as these are wherefore I am here.
    Catch all, I shall, within the net I threw
    And witness each sharp pain they undergo.
    Now, watch as one more cometh into view:
    The maiden Padmé, full of care and woe.
    [Exit Rumor .
    Enter P ADMÉ .
    PADMÉ
    By dark of night I come to hear what news
    I can of my defenseless countrymen.
    Would that I could be present with them there
    To share in their torment and suffering
    And be handmaiden to their ev’ry hope.
    Yet since, for now, I am a traveler
    And spinning through the echelons of space,
    My path lies not with that of my dear ones.
    Thus must I steal a hidden glimpse of them.
    P ADMÉ turns on the computer .
Enter S IO B IBBLE in beam .
    SIO
    The death toll hath been catastrophic here.
    Conform unto their wishes, Highness, please,
    And contact me anon, ere more are dead.
    [Exit Sio Bibble from beam .
    Enter A NAKIN S KYWALKER .
    PADMÉ
    Sweet boy, how dost thou fare?
    ANAKIN
    â€”I’m very ill.
    And how do you?
    PADMÉ
    â€”Ahh, very ill, too, lad.
    ANAKIN
    I find the depths of space turn my blood cold,
    The blood that knows the heat of Tatooine.
    [Padmé wraps a blanket around Anakin .
    PADMÉ
    Forsooth, thou comest from a planet warm,
    Belike too warm for mine own temp’rate taste.
    In truth, space is a cold and empty place.
    ANAKIN
    And you: why doth my lady say she’s ill?
    Your visage could recite a thousand woes.
    PADMÉ
    The queen is worried; her concern is mine.
    The people of Naboo face pain and death.
    The queen must make the Senate understand
    That they must rise anon and intervene
    To stop the cruel invasion, else all’s lost.
    The outcome is beyond what I can see.
    [Anakin removes a pendant from his pouch .
    ANAKIN
    I fashion’d this small trinket for you, miss,
    That you might oft remember Anakin.
    â€™Tis carvèd from a snippet of japor—
    Perchance it