A see the virgin rose.
How sweetly she doth first peep forth with bashful modesty.
That fair her seems...
That fair her seems the less ye see her may.
Lo see soon after how...
Modesty.
There are things that she'll see!
Lo see soon after how... more bold and free her bared bosom...
A see the virgin rose... How sweetly she doth peep forth with bashful modesty.
There can be no doubt about his sex.
Despite the feminine appearance that every young man at the time aspires to.
And there can be no doubt about his upbringing.
Good food.
Education.
A nanny.
Loneliness and isolation.
And...because this is England...
Orlando would therefore seem destined to have his portrait on the wall.
And his name in the history books.
But when he...
That is...
I
Came into the world.
He was looking for something else.
Though heir to a name that meant power, land and property...
Surely when Orlando was born...
it wasn't privilege he sought...
but company.
? Eliza ?
? Eliza's eyes are blessed stars, ?
? Inducing peace, subduing wars. ?
? O blessed be each day and hour ?
? Where sweet Eliza builds her bower. ?
? O blessed be each day and hour ?
? Where sweet Eliza builds her bower. ?
? Eliza ?
? Eliza is the fairest queen ?
? That ever trod upon the green. ?
? Eliza ?
? Eliza's eyes are blessed stars, ?
? Inducing peace, subduing wars. ?
? O blessed be each day and hour ?
? Where sweet Eliza builds her bower. ?
? O blessed be each day and hour ?
? Where sweet Eliza builds her bower. ?
? Eliza ?
? Eliza is the fairest queen ?
? That ever trod upon the green. ?
? Eliza ?
? Eliza's breast is that fair hill, ?
? Where virtue dwells, and sacred skill. ?
? O blessed be each day and hour ?
? Where sweet Eliza builds her bower. ?
DEATH
More wine my lord?
A see the virgin rose.
How sweetly she doth first peep forth
With bashful modesty.
That fair her seems the less ye see her may.
Lo see soon after how..
more bold and free her bared bosom she doth broad display
Lo see soon after how she fades...
and falls away.
so passeth in th..
Is this a worthy topic?
From one so clearly in the bloom of youth.
To one who would desire it still?
Fair virgo gratious majesty,
Your bloom is legendary,
and these were of course not the sentiments of our son,
but of a poet.
Now what would please you?
All that is mine is here for your pleasure.
All you call yours is mine already.
Come.
Your leg.
I want you here in England with me.
You will be the son of my old age
and the limb of my infirmity.
My favorite.
My mascot.
Come.
Aah, this is my victory.
Come, your handsome leg.
For you and for your heirs Orlando.
The house.
Your Majesty.
I'm forever i...
But on one condition.
Do not fade.
Do not wither.
Do not grow old.
Very interesting person.
First the queen and now his father.
It is too sad.
Mourning so becomes him.
One can quite see why he was the favorite.
My dear friends how can you?
In his time of grief.
LOVE
That way.
Sasha!
Who's that?
I believe she is the daughter of the muscovite ambassador.
How the delightful.
If that's to your taste.
What ever can you mean?
Oh, smearing themselves with candle wax to keep warm.
Wearing beards as they get older, that kind of thing.
Perhaps in this you're mistaken, Moray.
Told me on good authority by Lord Francis Vere.
Does he travel to muscovite.
He knows someone who did.
Aah.
This is the Lady Euphrosyne.
The Lord Winchelsea.
The Lord Orlando.
The Earl of Moray.
Moray....
And I am Lord Lord Francis Vere.
Ochin Liesna.
- Sorry? - Enchant?.
- Enchanted. - Aah.
And my name is Alexandra Menchikova.
But my father calls me Sasha.
Enchant?.
Here doing some quail.
Spasiba.
Do they have quail in Russia?
Do you speak French?
A little.
But the most Englishmen can't, or do not want to speak other languages.
How do they communicate with strangers then?
They speak english louder.
Please tell the ambassador that this,
great frost is the most severe ever to have visited these islands.
Erh, tell him that in Norfolk a young country woman was seen to turn visibly to powder
and was blown away in a puff of dust in the icy blast.
Most amusing.
Don't worry my dear, this absurd affection will not last the season.
After all..
She's a foreigner.
My Lord Orlando, you're in danger of becoming a fool.
You're ruining what could be the finest career in the land and for what?
I no longer care for a career, Moray.
I'm only interested in love.
Don't you see in courting a Cossack, you're humiliating not only your fianc?
but the entire female population of this country.
Besides which, they have nothing.
Why do you think they're here?
For your sake I would hunt wolf instead of rabbit drinking vodka instead of whiskey.
How generous.
As for marriage to the good Lady Euphrosyne the thing is so probably absurd that I scarcely give it a thought.
How gallant.
I feel as if I've been hooked through the nose and rushed through the waters painfully yet with my own consent.
How brave.
My Lord, have you quite forgotten that we are betrothed?
My Lady, I'm being constantly reminded.
You speak so lightly of it.
You've betrayed me.
The treachery of men.
It would never have worked.
A man must follow his heart.
There.
Where you live?
I do.
By yourself?
Well, yes.
At the moment.
No brother?
No sister?
You Sasha?
If I had brother I wouldn't be here.
My father only has me.
Nothing thicker than a knifes blade separates melancholy from happiness.
Why are you sad?
Because.
Because I can't bear this happiness to end.
But we are together.
Yes, now.
But what about tomorrow?
And the day after?
Orlando.
I think you suffer from a strange melancholy.
Which is, you suffer in advance.
Look at me. Look.
You are too serious, Orlando.
And yet not serious enough.
- Shadows, you saw shadows. - You were in his arms!
- It was illusion in light. - Then what were you doing?
- He was taking me across deck. - But I saw you!
May gods destroy me, if I family Menchikov would lie in arm of sailor.
Sasha.
I can not think of a life without you.
Stay with me.
- Don't ever go. - But it's impossible.
But why?
Because when ice breaks we must go.
But we're linked.
Our destinies are linked.
You're mine!
Why?
Because I adore you.
Meet me at midnight at London bridge.
We'll fly away as free as birds.
Lot's of air, very fresh.
There.
It's decided.
your lessons, speak now his now his a lot with peace within
Speak of me as I am.
Nothing extenuates nor sits down aught in malice.
Then speak of one.
Who loved lord wisely but to well
But one whom not easily jealous
But being wrought, perplexed in the extreme
Of one whose hand, like the base indian
threw a pearl away.
worth more than all his tribe.
I kissed thee ear. I killed thee.
No way but this.
By killing myself...
To die upon a kiss.
Terrific play.
She will. She will be here.
Help! Help!
The treachery of women.
Ehm, ehm.
Ehm!
Good morning!
It's now time to awake!
To such a fine morning.
From such a long refreshing sleep.
- Six days you say? - Tomorrow will be the seventh.
? This pleasing shining wondrous day. ?
The Lord Orlando...
is sleeping.
I can find only three words to describe the female sex.
None of which are worth expressing.
POETRY
When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes.
I all alone beweep my outcast state.
and trouble heaven
with my bootless cries.
and look upon myself
and curse my fate.
Aah.
Poetry.
Get off!
Off! Off!
Thank you.
I was thinking.
Sitting here, as we are.
It's odd. Considering how common the name of Greene is,
that the Greene family came over with the conquerer.
And is in fact,
from the highest nobility in France. - Oh.
Oh, really?
Unfortunately the Greens came down in the world and erm..
We've little more than leave our name to the burrower of Greenwich.
And now Mr. Greene to the subject closer to my heart and yours.
The sacred subject of poetry.
Aah.
You know, I once broke a lady's fan in my enthusiasm to find a rime.
Enthusiasm can be dangerous.
As a youth I was often mocked for my love of poetry and solitude.
Tragic.
And of course Mr. Greene, your works hold pride of place in my library.
Uh-uh.
To me there is a certain glory about a man who can express in words
those great emotions that others can only feel.
Oh.
You know I scarcely dared to ask to make your acquaintance
for I feel that I can offer nothing in return.
I'm sure that any writer would be more than willing to except your hospitality.
Oh, do you think so?
If we would speak of poetry...
then let us first speak of poets lives.
Do you know how "Hamlet" was written?
Written while bailiffs were pounding on Shakespeare's door.
No wonder so many of his plays were falsey too.
Aw, I'm sure you're right.
How can a...How can a genius work when he cannot pay the bills?
When I say work...
Erm, work you see... is...
people who haven't labored in this way don't understand
that real poetry neither easy nor easily produced.
Then I feel that I can understand a little Mr. Greene.
Because I have myself been so righteous to attempt to write some poems...
Did I hear a mouse's squeak?
I must say I didn't hear any.
That's saying you're in good health.
My own my lord have been so bad it's a marvel I'm still alive.
I have an enlarged heart, a spleen and a diseased liver.
Above all there are sensations in my spine which defy description.
There is one nob about a third from the top which burns like fire.
Second from the bottom...cold as ice.
Sometimes I feel as if a thousand wax tapers were a lite.
And people were throwing fireworks inside my brain and I...
I'm so sensitive.
I can feel a rose leaf through my mattress.
In short.
I'm a piece of machinery so finely made
and curiously put together
that it confounds me to think
That I've only sold 115 copies of my poem.
But it has to be said this is largely due to what can only be descried as a conspiracy against me.
But Mr. Greene surely your work is widely admired by all the young poets?
- Including dare I say it... - All young writers will turn at any trash that will sell.
It hurts me to say it.
For I love literature, as I love life.
But the art of poetry is dead in England.
You think so?
Of course... erhm...
That I have pension...
of...
300 pounds a year?
paid...
quarterly...
I'd live for literature alone..
I'd dedicate myself to fine writing.
But...sadly...
It's necessary to have a pension to do it.
About 300 pounds a year.
Paid quarterly.
Mr. Greene, I wounder would you be so kind as to give me your opinion of my efforts?
By all means... If I can find the time.
For time is money.
And I must write to eat.
- We're not in the pursuit of art. - Of course I will arrange for the small matter of the 300 pounds.
To be paid...
Quarterly?
- As you wish. - My dear friend!
"Death of a lover".
Listen to this my friend. This is the great work
Of my gracious host, the soon to be, congratulate me friend, my pension
"His heart was broken"
"cleft in two"
"abandoned, lost"
"what could he do?"
"And into this he retched cried"
"She said she loved me"
"But she lied"
"And so betrayed"
"He fell and died".
Try as he might.
This gracious noble lord.
Who lifts his pen.
And thinks he then can write.
Can not, for who can pen.
When he is bored.
The mind of leisure only can be trite.
This pretty knight who feebly lifts his sword
To make a witless thrust against his doom.
Is foiled by what his noble birth affords
Dogs, dogs more dogs and far to many rooms.
So fortune smiles on those that own the land
And frowns at the trivia from the dabblers hand.
I would like you to drop this in the midst of the filthiest manure.
And Mr. Greene's pension, sir?
Pay it, quarterly.
Abroad?
As your ambassador, your majesty.
Ambassador?
I see, once the balance of power has been established here in Europe.
We must certainly turn our attention to the east.
Well Orlando.
I fear you will be quite starved of conversation and amusement in such a remote corner of the world.
However, I believe they have an interest in...
horticulture.
I'd like you to bring them some tulips.
POLITICS
My dear sir, please accept my hospitality.
Feel that my home is your home.
And call upon me as you would a brother, for any of your needs.
You really are to kind.
And I must say I'm most impressed by your command of the english language.
I hadn't expect... I mean...
I wasn't led to believe...
Why...are you here?
I'm here as a representative of his majesty's government.
Yes?
It has been said to me that the English make a habit of collecting...
countries.
Oh! We have no designs upon your sovereignty at all.
No none at all.
You would assist us...
in defense against mutual enemies?
So Orlando, I salute your country.
To England, green and pleasant land.
And...
And I salute your country...
So...
spacious...
And...
So... warm.
Ah, yes.
To the glorious sun which shines so brightly on this bountiful earth.
Quite so.
Erm.
Yes!
Yes.
To beauty of nature.
And of course to the beauty of women.
And the joys of love.
I see.
You're here as a casualty of love, my friend.
They're not like us fellows.
Women...
it is said...
man should...
reverence his guarding lord who created them.
And from from a single being created of like nature his mate.
then from those two...
scattered like seeds...
countless men...
and women.
So Orlando...
Let us now drink to brotherly love.
To the manly virtues.
Loyalty.
Courage.
Take me to your master my dear fellow.
I said, take me to your master.
Do you speak English?
Now look I can asure you he'll would want to see me.
Just let me pass those, good now.
Lord Ornaldo?
I.. er...
May I present myself, I am the archduke Harry.
Emissary from her majesty.
I have come to inform you that your ten years here as ambassador...
have been well appreciated by her majesty.
would like to celebrate the new century...
by raising you...
to the highest rank...
in the...
peerage.
Ahh.
There must be a party.
well of course one must demonstrate the gravity of an investiture,
A large party, food and entertainment.
But of course you know that they call customs
Exactly who you should invite, to the ball. Who's who.
Strange.
Most strange.
Perhaps they don't hold punctuality in high regard?
As a representative of her majesty Queen Anne.
I am pleased...
and honored...
to bestow the most noble Order of the Bath...
upon this...
loyal servant...
for ambassadorial services rendered...
to the Crown...
and...
for the glory of god.
- I'm sorry to arrive in this fashion but we must talk. - But this is outrageous!
I was expecting you as a guest at my party, I didn't realize you were entertaining hostilities.
I was warned that Englishman would be dangerous for me.
I would like to give you an opportunity to prove this wrong.
Then let me introduce you, this is the archduke Harry from England.
Delighted.
Orlando.
Our enemies are at the city wall.
Will you help?
You wish me to take arms?
Truly Orlando you an Englishman are not afraid?
Sir!
My Lord.
Despite these appalling manners
we must keep our interests alive in this region.
What do you recommend.
- Harry, distribute your arms. - But these fellows?
- Do as I say! - But sir!
Follow me.
Brother.
Leave him.
This is a dying man.
He's not a man, he's the enemy.
Same person.
No difference at all.
Just a different sex.
Well, here I am again.
SOCIETY
Some more invitations my lady.
Is not this the lady famed for her literary gatherings?
Yes ma'am, but you could not possibly venture there. Alone.
Why ever not?
Society ma'am is full of dangerous individuals, which and... poets.
? Where you walk, call gale shall find the glade. ?
And how is your leg now Mr. Swift?
I have to tell you that the gout have left my left leg and is traveled to my right.
Aah, the conversation is of legs.
Gout Mr. Pope.
You are an expert in this field?
I believe I can say I have some knowledge.
A little learning is a dangerous thing.
Mr. Pope, I must write that down at once.
I already have madam.
If taken as a science the study of ailments can be quite fascinating.
Indeed I believe science to be interesting than poetry.
Do you?
Appraise sir, Elaborate.
We.. well the systematic study, exploration...
and taming of the material world...
is surely a proper occupation for a man.
Compared to which...
the introvert art of scribbling...
wishfully...
the occupation of...of...
a fool?
So I admit a general rule that every poet is a fool.
But you yourself may server to show it.
That every fool is not a poet.
Mr. Pope, you're pleased to be witty.
They are all words and no breeding archduke.
- But so amusing. - Countess, forgive me.
But the young lady who has joined us...
...bears the extraordinary resemblance to... - The Lady Orlando.
Orlando.
I were so proud of you Harry.
The Order of the Bath.
Marvelous. Cream?
Well how pleasant it is I'd live to sip tea in the presence of a gracious lady.
Do you Pestradus.
As our good friend Dr. Johnson says Every man is or desires to be an... idler.
Perhaps not every woman Mr. Swift.
Women have no desires, only affectation.
Indeed women are but children of larger growth.
Aaa, but I consider woman to be a beautiful romantic animal.
Who should be adorned in...
Furs and feathers, pearls and diamonds.
Apart from my wife of course.
Will insist upon attempting to learn greek.
It's so very unbecoming I can hardly tolerate her company at the breakfast table. Why do they do it?
Oh, every woman is adverse to contradiction and frankly...
most women have no characters at all.
Present company accepted of course.
Oh, the lady is aflame.
And silent.
Perfect.
Gentlemen.
I find it strange.
You are poets, each one of you and speak of your muse in the feminine.
And yet you appear to feel neither tenderness...
nor respect towards your wives nor towards females in general.
Madam! I have only the highest regard and purest respect for females.
I find no evidence of that sentiment in your conversation.
Conversation is a place where plays with ideas my dear lady.
The one forges them quite alone.
- Quite so. - Quite. Quite.
The intellect is a solitary place.
And therefore quite unsuitable a terrain for females who must discover their natures through the guidance of a father or husband.
And if she has neither?
Then...
However charming she may be dear lady...
She is lost.
None of us knew what had happened.
It is extraordinary.
And to think we could have been so charmingly misled.
Dear Lady! Orlando!
The same.
We wish to inform you.
Madam.
That you are a party to several major lawsuits that have been preferred against you concerning the property.
The family seat.
Pray continue.
Erh heh.
One: You are legally dead and therefore cannot hold any property whatsoever.
Ah.
Fine.
Two: You are now female. - Which amounts much the same thing.
Pending the legal judgment however..
You have the laws permission to reside in the property
- in a state of incognito. - Or incognita as the case may be.
- Harry! - There is only one solution in your current predicament.
Indeed.
I can offer you a house to rival your own.
I don't quite understand.
I confess.
Orlando, to me you were and always will be, weather male or female...
The pink the pearl and the perfection of your ?seas?.
I'm offering you my hand.
Oh! Archduke.
That is very kind of you, yes.
I can't accept.
But I...
I, am England.
And you are mine.
I see.
On what grounds?
That I adore you.
And this means that I belong to you?
- Are you refusing me? - I am, I'm sorry.
But Orlando.
With your history quite frankly who else will have you?
Do you realize what you're turning down?
With your ambiguous sexuality which I am prepared to tolerate.
This is your last chance of respectability.
Can't breathe.
You will die a spinster, dispossessed and alone.
Spinster!
Alone!
Nature, nature, I'm your bride. Take me!
SEX
You're hurt ma'am?
I'm dead, sir.
Dead. That's serious. Can I help?
Will you marry me?
Ma'am... I would gladly... um, I... but I fear my ankle is twisted.
What's that?
The future.
Some milk? My god I don't yet know your name, sir.
How strange, I feel as though I know everything about you.
When like meets like. My name is Shelmerdine.
Orlando.
So..it only remains to fill in such unimportant details as..
What we do and so on.
Well you can see for yourself what I was.
Was?
You see, I'm about to loose everything.
Then you can come with me.
Where are you going?
Back to America?
When the wind changes to the south-west.
America.
I've been abroad.
But east.
Then you know as well as I, how good it is to travel.
Like a free spirit.
Unfeathered by position or possession.
Unfeathered.
Are you...
An adventurer by profession?
My profession, if you can call it that...
it's the pursuit of liberty.
The bright shade, of some immortal dream.
Which walks when tempus sleeps.
The wave of life's dark stream.
You don't really want a husband.
I suppose your journey is to be hazardous at times.
Think, you want a lover.
You've fought in battles?
Like a man?
I have fought.
Blood?
If necessary, yes.
Freedom must be taken, if it must be won.
If I were a man...
You?
I might choose not to risk my life for an uncertain cause.
I might think that freedom won by death is not worth having.
In fact...
You might choose not to be a real man at all.
Say, if I were a woman...
You?
I might choose not to sacrifice my life caring for my children,
nor my children's children,
nor to drown anonymously in the milk of female kindness,
but instead, say, to go abroad.
Would I then be...
A real woman?
I think I'm going to faint. I've never felt better in my life.
Rise, from pains of thee.
From first sweet sleep of night.
Winds are breathing low.
Heavens stars are shining bright.
But it is day.
Days are nice.
Mingling are sweet embrace on end.
Who's there?
Excuse me my lady, there are two officers outside with a warrant from the queen.
The queen?
Victoria, ma'am. The gentlemen say they must speak to you in person.
Oh.
I'd almost forgotten.
Her ladyship.
The lawsuit is settled.
My sex is pronounced indisputably and beyond shadow of a doubt... female...
Therefore heirs made of my body will risk it taking as red. I loose everything unless I have a son!
So you're free.
I think the spirit of this century is finally taken me and broken me.
I would be sad if it were true.
But it is not.
Come with me.
I cannot.
I can't just follow you.
You can stay and stagnate in the past or leave and live for the future, the choice is yours.
- As a man one has choices, Shelmerdine. - Orlando, you can do whatever you want.
Would you like to have a child with me?
So that you can keep your house?
No, not for the house Shelmerdine. Perhaps for love?
These are the times that try men's souls.
My love is for mankind, I must fight for liberty.
- I must fight for a future. - For a future?
This future of yours Shelmerdine, when it's gonna begin... today?
or is it always tomorrow?
Touch? Orlando.
The wind!
The wind.
The south-west wind.
Good bye, Shelmerdine! Good luck!
Orlando!
BIRTH
It's really very good.
Written from the heart.
I think it'll sell.
Provided you rewrite it. You know.
Increase the love interest. Give it a happy ending.
By the way, how long did this draft take you?
Come on. Come on.
She.
For there can be no doubt about her sex.
Is visiting the house she finally lost for the first time in over a hundred years.
She does still have certain natural advantages of course.
She is tall and slim, with a slightly androgynous appearance that many females at the time aspire to.
Then her upbringing,
she's lived for four hundred years and hardly aged a day.
And because this is England.
Everyone pretends not to notice.
But she has changed.
She is no longer trapped by destiny.
And... ever since she let go of the past...
She found her life was beginning.
? I am coming! I am coming! ?
? I am coming through! ?
? Coming across the divide to you ?
? In this moment of unity ?
? feeling an ecstacy ?
? to be here, to be now ?
? At last I am free ?
Why are you sad?
I'm not. I'm happy.
Look. Look up there.
? Yes at last, at last ?
? to be free of the past ?
? and of the future that beckons me ?
? I am coming! I am coming! ?
? Here I am! ?
? Neither a woman, nor a man ?
? We are joined, we are one ?
? With the human face ?
? We are joined, we are one ?
? With the human face ?
? I am on earth ?
? And I am in outer space ?
? I'm being born and I am dying ?
? I am on earth ?
? And I am in outer space ?
? I'm being born and I am dying ?
? I am coming! I am coming! ?
? I am coming through! ?
? Coming across the divide to you ?
? In this moment of unity ?
? feeling an ecstacy ?
? to be here, to be now ?
? At last I am free! ?
? Yes at last, at last ?
? to be free of the past ?
? and of the future that beckons me ?
? Yes at last, at last ?
? to be free of the past ?
? and of the future that beckons me ?
? I am coming! I am coming! ?
? Here I am! ?
? Neither a woman, nor a man ?
? Oh we are joined, we are one ?
? with the human face ?
? Oh we are joined, we are one ?
? with the human face ?
? At last I am free! ?
? I am on earth ?
? And I am in outer space ?
? I'm being born and I am dying ?
? I am on earth ?
? And I am in outer space ?
? I'm being born, I am dying ?
? At last I am free! ?
? At last I am free!!! ?
? Yes at last, at last, at last I'm free! ?