OLD WOMAN
Dennis! There's some lovely filth down here ... Oh!
how d'you do?
ARTHUR
How d'you do, good lady ... I am Arthur, King of the Britons ...
can you tell me who lives in that castle?
OLD WOMAN
King of the WHO?
ARTHUR
The Britons.
OLD WOMAN
Who are the Britons?
ARTHUR
All of us are ... we are all Britons.
DENNIS winks at the OLD WOMAN.
... and I am your king ....
OLD WOMAN
Ooooh! I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were
an autonomous collective ...
DENNIS
You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship,
A self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes ...
OLD WOMAN
There you are, bringing class into it again ...
DENNIS
That's what it's all about ... If only -
ARTHUR
Please, please good people. I am in haste. What knight lives in
that castle?
OLD WOMAN
No one live there.
ARTHUR
Well, who is your lord?
OLD WOMAN
We don't have a lord.
ARTHUR
What?
DENNIS
I told you, We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune, we take
it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week.
ARTHUR
Yes.
DENNIS
... But all the decision of that officer ...
ARTHUR
Yes, I see.
DENNIS
... must be approved at a bi-weekly meeting by a simple majority
in the case of purely internal affairs.
ARTHUR
Be quiet!
DENNIS
... but a two-thirds majority ...
ARTHUR
Be quiet! I order you to shut up.
OLD WOMAN
Order, eh -- who does he think he is?
ARTHUR
I am your king!
OLD WOMAN
Well, I didn't vote for you.
ARTHUR
You don't vote for kings.
OLD WOMAN
Well, how did you become king, then?
ARTHUR
The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite,
held Excalibur aloft from the bosom of the water to signify by
Divine Providence ... that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur ...
That is why I am your king!
|
| OLD WOMAN
| Is Frank in? He'd be able to deal with this one.
|
DENNIS
Look, strange women lying on their backs in ponds handing out
swords ... that's no basis for a system of government. Supreme
executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from
some farcical aquatic ceremony.
ARTHUR
Be quiet!
DENNIS
You can't expect to wield supreme executive power
just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
ARTHUR
Shut up!
DENNIS
I mean, if I went around saying I was an Emperor because some
moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, people would
put me away!
ARTHUR
(Grabbing him by the collar)
Shut up, will you. Shut up!
DENNIS
Ah! NOW ... we see the violence inherent in the system.
ARTHUR
Shut up!
PEOPLE (i.e. other PEASANTS) are appearing and watching.
DENNIS
(calling)
Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!
Screenplay by
JOHN CLEESE
GRAHAM CHAPMAN
TERRY GILLIAM
ERIC IDLE
TERRY JONES
MICHAEL PALIN
FINAL DRAFT 20.3.1974
