Beatrice
the air,
the air is sweet and like perfume
there's so much room
to breathe this beauty in
where do I begin?
with you,
with you, most beautiful of all
the one I fall in
love with more each day,
and now come what may,
I've never wanted anything so much
as your breath
as your kiss
as your touch...

(She steps closer to him. Still tentative, Conti reaches out to touch her. She pulls away out of habit, but then allows it.)

CONTI
It’s okay. Really. No pain. There’s nothing.

BEATRICE
No. There’s something.

(and the music launches into the chorus of YOU TOUCH ME. When they can take a moment to break from the kiss, they sing to each other)

BEATRICE (and Conti)
You touch me (you touch me)
you touch me here (you touch me here)
where no-one else has gone (where no one's ever been)
you touch me (you touch me)
you make this sweet (you have this sweetness)
intoxication linger on (that I haven't tasted since I don't know when)
it's been agony to stay away (I couldn't stay away)
but to finally kiss your lips, (to finally kiss,)

BEATRICE & CONTI
oh it's ecstasy to come so near,
will you hold me in your arms, my sweet,
and kiss me once again, my dear.

(And now we see Rappaccini watching from the shadows, not having gone back to the house at all. He’s angered, concerned, frightened.)

(And they stand, looking at each other, his hands holding her face. And then...She slips, weakens.)

What's happening? John!

(Rappaccini steps from the shadows.)


RAPPACCINI
Leave her to me!

CONTI
(spoken)
You have no say in this.

RAPPACCINI
I have every say.
She is my wife!

CONTI
(spoken)
Your what?

RAPPACCINI
My wife.

(Beatrice collapses. Conti lowers her to the ground. Rappaccini takes her in his arms.)

The dearest thing to me.

CONTI
(spoken)
How...how is that possible?

RAPPACCINI
The poisons not only kept her alive,
they kept her young.
By destroying them...
She knew what it would do.

(Conti now realizes what he’s done. It shatters him.)
(Around them, the garden begins to move. Bending toward Beatrice. Stretching toward her. The tendrils of the plants begin to wrap around her, to cover her.)

(Rappaccini releases her and backs away. Conti knees before her.)

BEATRICE
(to Conti)
you're the one who could release me
from my solitary fate,
my life of never knowing what the much ado's about.
For an instant of this feeling
is a million times more great
than a long and lonely lifetime lived without
like Desdemona,
like Cleopatra,
oh this brave new world, at long last I see,
for the first time in a long time,
for the first time in a lifetime,
I found it.
I feel it.
I take it with me.

(And she dies. Conti’s heart breaks. He looks at Rappaccini, who has turned away, unwilling to show his tears.
The plants cover her from view.
Rappaccini sees the gun he dropped. He bends to pick it up, feeling the cold steel in his hands, fighting his anger, keeping his back to Conti for the moment.)

RAPPACCINI
Whatever she told you,
whatever you heard,
she was not my child,
Mr. Conti.
Our child died long ago.

(Rappaccini turns back to Conti, the gun firmly in his grip.)

DR. RAPPACCINI (CONT’D)
And without my wife, I have nothing at all.

(He threatens Conti, then suddenly turns the gun back on himself, pressing it to his heart.)

CONTI
Rappaccini, no!
(Rappaccini FIRES, killing himself.

Trying to grasp all that’s happened, Conti looks back to where Beatrice was. The plants pull back now to reveal her body is gone, absorbed into the garden.

The blossoms unfold under the moon. A final tribute.)