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Antonius Block: I shall remember this moment: the silence, the twilight, the bowl of strawberries, the bowl of milk. Your faces in the evening light. Mikael asleep, Jof with his lyre. I shall try to remember our talk. I shall carry this memory carefully in my hands as if it were a bowl brimful of fresh milk. It will be a sign to me, and a great sufficiency.
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Antonius Block: Nothing escapes you!
Death: Nothing escapes me. No one escapes me.
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[In response to Death coming for him]
Jonas Skat: Is there no exemption for actors?
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Antonius Block: I met Death today. We are playing chess.
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Jöns: Love is the blackest of all plagues... if one could die of it, there would be some pleasure in love, but you don't die of it.
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Antonius Block: I want to confess as best I can, but my heart is void. The void is a mirror. I see my face and feel loathing and horror. My indifference to men has shut me out. I live now in a world of ghosts, a prisoner in my dreams.
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Antonius Block: Who are you?
Death: I am Death.
Antonius Block: Have you come for me?
Death: I have long walked by your side.
Antonius Block: So I have noticed.
Death: Are you ready?
Antonius Block: My body is ready, but I am not.
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Antonius Block: They say you have consorted with the devil?
Witch: Why do you ask that?
Antonius Block: It's not out of curiosity, but because of utterly personal reasons. I would also like to meet him.
Witch: Why?
Antonius Block: I want to ask him about God. He must know. He, if anyone.
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[watching a young woman get burned at the stake]
Jöns: Who will take care care of that child? Is it the angels or God or Satan or the emptiness? The emptiness, Sire?
Antonius Block: It can't be so!
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Death: Don't you ever stop asking?
Antonius Block: No. I never stop.
Death: But you're not getting an answer.
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[Death approaches Antonius Block]
Antonius Block: Wait a moment.
Death: You all say that. But I grant no reprieves.
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[Antonius Block lets Death choose which chess pieces to play]
Antonius Block: You drew black.
Death: Appropriate, don't you think?
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[the church painter explains why he is painting a mural about death]
Church Painter: Why should one always make people happy? It might be a good idea to scare them once in a while.
Jöns: Then they'll close their eyes and refuse to look.
Church Painter: They'll look. A skull is more interesting than a naked woman.
Jöns: If you do scare them...
Church Painter: Then they think.
Jöns: And then?
Church Painter: They'll become more scared.
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Jöns: Do you have any brandy? I've had nothing but water. It's made me as thirsty as a camel in the desert.
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Jöns: Our crusade was such madness that only a real idealist could have thought it up.
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Mia: You don't look so happy.
Antonius Block: No.
Mia: Are you tired?
Antonius Block: Yes. I have boring company.
Mia: You mean your squire?
Antonius Block: No, not him.
Mia: Who do you mean, then?
Antonius Block: Myself.
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Antonius Block: Faith is a torment. It is like loving someone who is out there in the darkness but never appears, no matter how loudly you call.
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Jöns: Love is as contagious as a cold. It eats away at your strength, morale... If everything is imperfect in this world, love is perfect in its imperfection.
Blacksmith Plog: You're happy, you with your oily words. You believe your own twaddle.
Jöns: Believe it? Who said? But I love to give pieces of advice.
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Jonas Skat: Kill me. I'll thank you afterwards.
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Blacksmith Plog: Hey Jöns, purely confidential, isn't life quite...?
Jöns: [interrupts Plog] Yes, it is... but don't think about that now.
Blacksmith Plog: [to himself] It's ludicrous, that's what it is.
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[Jonas Skat is in a tree which Death is cutting down]
Jonas Skat: Hey, you scurvy knave, what are you doing with my tree? You might at least answer. Who are you?
Death: I'm felling your tree. Your time is up.
Jonas Skat: You can't. I haven't time.
Death: So you haven't time?
Jonas Skat: No. My performance...
Death: Cancelled... because of Death.
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Jof: And the strict lord Death bids them to dance.
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Antonius Block: We must make an idol of our fear, and call it god.
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Jöns: It's hell with women, and hell without. Best to kill them all while the fun lasts.
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Jöns: Love is nothing but lust and cheating and lies.
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Jöns: Only fools die of love.
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Jöns: But feel, to the very end, the triumph of being alive!
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Girl: It is finished.
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Blacksmith Plog: I'm going to pinch them in the nose with my pliers. I'm going to pound them on the chest with my little hammer. I'm going to crack them lightly on the head with my sledgehammer
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Antonius Block: This is my hand. I can turn it. The blood is still running in it. The sun is still in the sky and the wind is blowing. And I... I, Antonius Block, play chess with Death.
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Antonius Block: Is it so terribly inconceivable to comprehend God with one's senses? Why does he hide in a cloud of half-promises and unseen miracles? How can we believe in the faithful when we lack faith? What will happen to us who want to believe, but can not? What about those who neither want to nor can believe? Why can't I kill God in me? Why does He live on in me in a humiliating way - despite my wanting to evict Him from my heart? Why is He, despite all, a mocking reality I can't be rid of?
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Antonius Block: I want knowledge! Not faith, not assumptions, but knowledge. I want God to stretch out His hand, uncover His face and speak to me.
Death: But He remains silent.
Antonius Block: I call out to Him in the darkness. But it's as if no one was there.
Death: Perhaps there isn't anyone.
Antonius Block: Then life is a preposterous horror. No man can live faced with Death, knowing everything's nothingness.
Death: Most people think neither of death nor nothingness.
Antonius Block: But one day you stand at the edge of life and face darkness.
Death: That day.
Antonius Block: I understand what you mean.
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Death: Ingenting undgår mig. Ingen undgår mig.
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Jöns: Between a scarlet woman's knees, a man like me can take his ease.
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Jöns: It's hell with women and hell without women. No matter how you reason it seems like the logic thing to do is to kill them while it's still fun.
Blacksmith Plog: Bickering and swill!
Jöns: Screaming babies and diapers full of piss!
Blacksmith Plog: Sharp nails and malice!
Jöns: Scuffle, fits and the devil's aunt as a mother in law!
Blacksmith Plog: And then when you're going to sleep...
Jöns: Then they change they're tune!
Blacksmith Plog: Tears, complaints and wailing to high heaven!
Jöns: "Why won't you kiss me good night?"...
Blacksmith Plog: "Why won't you sing a song?"...
Jöns: "How come you don't love me like when we first met?"...
Blacksmith Plog: "Why aren't you looking at my new shift?"...
Jöns: "Just turn your back and snore!"...
Blacksmith Plog: Damn it!
Jöns: Damn it! Now she's gone; Rejoice!
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Death: When next we meet, the hour will strike for you and your friends.
Antonius Block: And will you reveal your secrets?
Death: I have no secrets.
Antonius Block: So do you know nothing?
Death: I am unknowing.
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Jöns: [Looking at the religious procession] Is this what we offer to modern men's minds? Do they really believe we will take all of this seriously?
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[last lines]
Jof: I see them, Mia! I see them! Over there against the dark, stormy sky. They are all there. The smith and Lisa and the knight and Raval and Jöns and Skat. And Death, the severe master, invites them to dance. He tells them to hold each other's hands and then they must tread the dance in a long row. And first goes the master with his scythe and hourglass, but Skat dangles at the end with his lyre. They dance away from the dawn and it's a solemn dance towards the dark lands, while the rain washes their faces and cleans the salt of the tears from their cheeks.
Mia: [smiling] You with your visions and dreams.
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Girl: [kneeling in front of Death] It is the end.
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Antonius Block: From our darkness, we call out to Thee, Lord. Have mercy on us because we are small and frightened and ignorant.
Jöns: [bitterly] In the darkness where you are supposed to be, where all of us probably are... In the darkness you will find no one to listen to your cries or be touched by your sufferings. Wash your tears and mirror yourself in your indifference.
Antonius Block: God, You who are somewhere, who must be somewhere, have mercy upon us.
Jöns: I could have given you an herb to purge you of your worries about eternity. Now it seems to be too late. But in any case, feel the immense triumph of this last minute when you can still roll your eyes and move your toes.
Karin, Block's Wife: Quiet, quiet.
Jöns: I shall be silent, but under protest.
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Witch: Look into my eyes.
[the knight meets her gaze. They stare at each other for a long time]
Witch: What do you see? Do you see him?
Antonius Block: I see fear in your eyes, an empty, numb fear. But nothing else.
Witch: No one, nothing, no one?
Antonius Block: [shakes his head] No.
Witch: Can't you see him behind your back?
Antonius Block: [turns around] No, there is no one there.
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Jöns: [the witch is about to be burned] Look at her eyes, my lord. Her poor brain has just made a discovery. Emptiness under the moon.
Antonius Block: No.
Jöns: We stand powerless, our arms hanging at our sides, because we see what she sees, and our terror and hers are the same. That poor little child. I can't stand it, I can't stand it...
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[first lines]
narrator: And when the Lamb had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space oh half an hour. And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
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Jöns: The actor plays on the emotions. That's half the battle.
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The Monk: [addressing the village crowd] God is punishing us. We shall perish from the Black Death. You there, gaping like cattle; and you, bloated with complacency; don't you know this could be your final hour? Death is at your back. I see his crown gleaming in the sun. His scythe flashes above your heads. Which of you will he strike first? You there, staring like a goat; will nightfall see your last twisted grimace? You, woman, full of the lust of life... will you grow pale and wither before the dawn? You, with the swollen nose and stupid grin; will you soil the earth another year with your refuse? Don't you fools know you're going to die? You're all doomed. Do you hear me? Do you hear me? Doomed! Doomed! Doomed! Lord, have mercy on us sinners. Turn not away Thy face in loathing and contempt for the sake of Thy son, Jesus Christ!
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Karin, Block's Wife: [reading from the Book of Revelation] And when the Lamb had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth. And a third part of the earth was burnt up... and a third part of the trees was burnt up... and all the green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded his trumpet... and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea. And a third part of the sea became blood. And the third angel sounded his trumpet... and there fell a great star from heaven... burning as if it were a torch. And the name of the star is called Wormwood.
[Death suddenly appears before them]
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Jöns, squire: [singing] Between a strumpet's legs I lie, That's the place for such as I, The Lord is up above, you know, But Satan finds us here below.
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Mia: Who did you see?
Jof: The Virgin Mary.
Mia: Did you really see her?
Jof: She was so close I could have touched her. She wore a golden crown and a blue robe with golden flowers. She was barefoot, and in her little brown hands she was holding the Child and teaching Him to walk. When she saw me, she smiled. My eyes filled with tears, and when I wiped them away, she was gone. And there was a great stillness everywhere, in heaven and on earth. You understand?
Mia: The things you imagine.
Jof: You don't believe me, but it's true. It's not the reality you see, but another kind.
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Mia: Keep your visions under control. Otherwise people will think you're a fool, which you're not. At least not yet, as far as I know. Though I can't even be sure of that.
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Jöns, squire: It's not my fault if I hear voices and see the Virgin, and if angels and devils like my company.
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Mia: Don't move. Don't speak.
Jof: I'm as silent as a grave.
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Jöns, squire: What's that supposed to be?
Albertus Pictor, Church Painter: The Dance of Death.
Jöns, squire: And that one is Death.
Albertus Pictor, Church Painter: Yes, he dances off with them.
Jöns, squire: Why do you paint such nonsense?
Albertus Pictor, Church Painter: To remind people they're going to die.
Jöns, squire: That won't cheer them up any.
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Antonius Block: My whole life has been nothing but futile wandering, a great deal of words without meaning. I say that without bitterness or self-reproach, because I know it's the same for most men.
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Antonius Block: [to Death] You're a traitor - and you tricked me. But we will meet again, and I'll find a way out.
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Jöns, squire: My master and I just returned from abroad. You understand, my little painter?
Albertus Pictor, Church Painter: The Crusades?
Jöns, squire: Precisely. Ten years in the Holy Land, bitten by snakes and flies, slaughtered by savages, poisoned by bad wine, infested with lice by women, rotting with fever, all for the glory of God.
Albertus Pictor, Church Painter: For the glory of God.
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Jöns, squire: Here's squire Jöns. He grins at Death, scoff at the Lord, laughs at himself, and leers at the girls. His world exists only for himself. Absurd to all, even to himself. Meaningless to heaven, and of no interest to hell.
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Jöns, squire: Whichever way we turn, our rump is behind us.
Albertus Pictor, Church Painter: Our rump's always behind us. How true.
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Raval: No use running off to tell. It's everyone for himself. It's as simple as that. Don't try to scream. There's no one to hear you, neither God nor man. Isn't that surprising?
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Jöns, squire: Farewell, my sweet. I could have raped you, but I've grown tired of that kind of love. It's a little dull in the end.
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Jöns, squire: I'm a married man, but I expect my wife is dead by now.
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Jof: Have we nothing to offer our guest?
Antonius Block: Nothing for me, thank you.
Mia: I picked some wild strawberries this afternoon. And there's milk fresh from the cow.
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Mia: One day is like another. There's nothing strange about that. Summer is better than Winter, of course, because you aren't cold. But, Spring is best of all.
Jof: I wrote a song about Spring. Would you like to hear it?
Mia: Not now, Jof. Our guests may not care for your songs.
Jöns, squire: By all means. I write songs myself.
Jof: You see?
Jöns, squire: I know one about a wanton fish I'm sure you've never heard.
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Antonius Block: There's so much to worry people.
Mia: It's better to be two. Have you no one?
Antonius Block: I had once.
Mia: And now?
Antonius Block: I don't know.
Mia: So solemn! Was she your beloved?
Antonius Block: We were newly married. We played and laughed. I wrote songs to her eyes, to her nose, and to her beautiful little ears. We hunted and danced. The house was full of life.
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Jof: Where are we to perform?
Jonas Skat: The saints' feast in Elsinore. Right on the church steps.
Jof: Why not something bawdy? People prefer it, and it's more fun.
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Jöns, squire: God in heaven, if it isn't Plog the Smith. Are you sitting here crying all alone?
Blacksmith Plog: Yes., look at the Smith, moaning like a rabbit drowning in piss.
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Jonas Skat: It's the filthy Smith who insulted my beloved lady, the fair Kunigunda.
Blacksmith Plog: What did you call her?
Lisa, blacksmith's wife: Kunigunda. Are you deaf?
Jöns, squire: Kunigunda.
Blacksmith Plog: Her name is Lisa. Strumpet Lisa. Rumpy, smutty, slutty Lisa.
Lisa, blacksmith's wife: How coarse he is.
Blacksmith Plog: Go find your own trash, you gilded pimp!
Lisa, blacksmith's wife: What a brute!
Jonas Skat: You scabby bastard of seven scurvy bitches, if I were in your lousy rags, I'd be so ashamed of everything about my person that I would immediately rid nature of my own embarrassing self.
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Jöns, squire: Lord, why did you create women?
The Seventh Seal Quotes
Extended Reading
