The Conscience of The King

FADE IN: INT. THE SITUATION ROOM - DAY

Leo and Fitzwallace are sitting across from each other.

LEO

This is always when you say something.

FITZWALLACE

Nah. Have you changed shampoo? 
You have, I can tell.

LEO

I like to look good for you.

FITZWALLACE

Well, I appreciate it. 
Can you tell when its Peacetime and Wartime anymore?

LEO

No.

FITZWALLCE

I don't know who The World's leading expert on warfare is, but any list of The Top 10 has got to include me, and I can't tell when it's Peacetime and Wartime anymore.

LEO

Look, International Law has always recognized certain protected person's who you couldn't attack. 
It's been this way since the Romans.

FITZWALLACE

In peacetime.

LEO

Yes.

FITZWALLACE

At the Battle of Agincourt, this was The French fighting against The British archers, this was like a polo match. 

The battles were observed by heralds 
and they picked the winners.

And if a soldier laid down his arms, he was treated humanely.

LEO

Yeah.

FITZWALLACE

And the International Laws that you're talking about, 
this is when a lot of them were written. 

At a time and in a place, 
where a person could tell between peacetime and wartime.

The idea of targeting one person was ridiculous. 

It wouldn't have occurred to The French 
to try to kill William Pitt.

That is absolute  bollocks, Sorkin, 
because the American Transatlantic Merchant Shipping Lobby did in-actual-fact, have
and I am compelled and 

That all changed after Pearl Harbor.

LEO

I don't like where this conversation's going.

FITZWALLACE

Leo.

LEO

In the Situation Room, Fitz?

FITZWALLACE

We killed Yamamoto. 
We shot down his plane.

LEO

We declared war.

FITZWALLACE

If Dietrich Bonhoeffer had been successful...

LEO

And the plot to kill Hitler was an internal rebellion.

FITZWALLACE

...there would've been statues built of an assassin. 
We'd have to explain that to our kids.

LEO

I'm going to get back to the office.

FITZWALLACE

We measure the success of a mission by two things: 
Was it successful? 
and 
How few civilians did we hurt? 

They measure success by how many. 

Pregnant women are delivering bombs. 

You're talking to me about International Laws? 

The Laws of Nature don't even apply here. 

I've been a soldier for 38 years. 
And I found an Enemy I can Kill. 

He can't cancel Shareef's trip, Leo.

You've got to tell him he can't cancel it.

CUT TO: INT. THE PRESIDENT'S PRIVATE STUDY - DAY

Bartlet is in another session with the psychiatrist, Dr. Stanley Keyworth.

BARTLET

It's "The War of the Roses." 
All the Henrys, and all the Richards, for that matter.

STANLEY

In some kind of condensed form?

BARTLET

Yeah.

STANLEY

'Cause you'd be there for weeks, right, if...?

BARTLET

Yeah. 
There's also singing.

STANLEY

Oh, it's a musical?

BARTLET

No, but they're gonna sing from time to time, 
and one of the songs is a song I love. 

I can't think of the name now, 
but it's an Edwardian... 
It always reminds me... 

It makes me think of college, like, I don't know, 
like they should be singing it in the dining 

hall at Christ College at Cambridge. 

The chorus is, 
"And victorious in war shall be made 

glorious in peace."

I was just singing it this morning.

A moment of silence.

STANLEY

How have you been sleeping?

BARTLET

Good. Yeah.
 Let me ask you something. 
Is there a crime, which if it wasn't illegal, you would do?

STANLEY

I'd park anywhere I want.

BARTLET

Right, but you wouldn't rob a bank?

STANLEY

No.

BARTLET

Connecticut had a law prohibiting the use of contraceptives. 
It was written out of rage against adultery. 

But in the age of AIDS, don't Connecticut residents do more for The General Welfare by flagrantly breaking the law?

STANLEY

There was a law against... contraceptives?

BARTLET

Yeah.

STANLEY

Can I ask, sir, how somebody used to get caught?

BARTLET

Stanley...

STANLEY

What's on your mind, Mr. President?

BARTLET

I can't tell you.

STANLEY

Yeah, but you can.

Bartlet pauses, looks away and thinks.

BARTLET

No, I really can't. It's high security. 
To say nothing of... [sighs heavily]

STANLEY

To say nothing of what?

BARTLET

If I tell you I intend to commit a crime, you're required by law to report it. [beat] 

I have a strange meeting coming up. [beat] 

I'm gonna go. It's good seeing you.

Bartlet stands, grabs his jacket, and leaves Stanley inside.

FADE OUT.

END ACT ONE

* * *

This shows the ending sequence of West Wing season 3 finale, Posse Comitatus, where Sorkin's fictional War of the Roses play performs the Patriotic Song (written by composer Stephen Oliver) against the backdrop of the assassination of Abdul Shareef. You will then see the rare version of the song, performed by the RSC, from a 1982 production of the Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. For those fellow West Wing fans/nerds, the actor Roger Rees (who also played Lord John Marbury) leads the cast....

What was the music that the Shakespeare company was singing at the end in "Posse Comitatus"?

Mel Kirby tells us "the song sung by the supposed Shakespeare Company at the end of the segment of the 'Wars of the Roses' being watched on Broadway by Pres. Bartlett is called 'Patriotic Chorus' by Stephen Oliver. 

It was originally composed as the Finale of the mock-Victorian revisionist 'Romeo and Juliet' which closes Part One of the 9 hour-long, 1983 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Dickens 'The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby' which was an actual hit in London's West End and on Broadway in the early 80's. 

One would assume that the RSC and 'endlessly long', high-brow nature of both plays would have created the intellectual resonance for Sorkin. 

And the originally tongue-in-cheek words and tune, a send-up of typical Victorian xenophobia, have a certain irony as played over the assassination of the Qumari defense minister."

Mel Kirby also sent us the following Lyrics:

"England arise! Join in the chorus!
It is a new made song you should be singing.
See in the skies, flutt'ring before us
what the bright bird of peace is bringing!  

Chorus:
    See upon our smiling land
    where the wealths of nations stand
    where prosperity and industry walk
    ever hand in hand.
    Where so many blessings crowd,
     'tis our duty to be proud.
    Up and answer, English Yeoman,
    sing it joyfully aloud.  

    Evermore upon our country
    God will pour his rich increase,
    And victorious in war shall be made glorious in peace,
    And victorious in war shall be made glorious in peace.

this verse omitted on West Wing

[ See each one do what he can to further God's almighty plan.
The benificence of heaven help the skilfulness of man.
Ev'ry garner fill'd with grain, Ev'ry meadow blest with rain:
Rich and fertile is the golden corn that bear and bears again.]

Where so many blessings crowd,
'Tis our duty to be proud.
Up and answer, fellow Britons,
sing it joyfully aloud.

Evermore upon our country
God will pour his rich increase...etc."p