William Shakespeare’s The Force Doth Awaken Read online

  Enter REY near FINN, who lies unconscious on a pod.

  She kisses him on the forehead.

  REY

  Methinks I shall yearn for thee when I go,

  Yea, thou art such a kind and worthy friend.

  Soon we shall see each other once again:

  This I believe, and thou must too, good Finn.

  O, hear me e’en within thy slumber deep:

  Rey owes her life to thee, thou hast her thanks.

  Yet even as I leave thee, prithee know

  I shall return, e’en as thou didst to me.

  Seek we Luke Skywalker, the Jedi true,

  By R2-D2’s map, with BB-8’s,

  Yon shall we fly, and hope to find him there.

  My fondest hopes, my wildest dreams could not

  Yield what I have been call’d herein to do—

  Since I was but a lowly scavenger,

  There on the dismal planet of Jakku,

  Expected I that I would live and die

  Restricted by my past, my constant wait:

  Yearn would I for those who would never come.

  Considering where I began, my roots,

  Out of all expectation I have flown.

  My fate hath spun beyond what I’d believe:

  Plac’d deep within the brave Resistance’s ranks,

  Initiated in the pow’rful Force.

  Lo, with Chewbacca and R2 I go,

  E’en in the swift Millenn’um Falcon fly,

  Determining the future of my life.

  Enter GENERAL LEIA ORGANA. Enter CHEWBACCA, R2-D2, C-3PO, BB-8, POE DAMERON, and RESISTANCE SOLDIERS aside, preparing the Millennium Falcon for departure.

  LEIA

  Rey, may the Force be with thee as thou goest.

  [They embrace.

  C-3PO

  For now the tale hath come unto its end,

  A mixture of emotions bittersweet.

  The Force begins to waken in th’Resistance,

  A new hope is reveal’d to us at last.

  REY

  New friends were made by these adventures here,

  New chances for a better life obtain’d,

  New consciousness unto the mighty Force,

  New ways to serve our hurting galaxy.

  LEIA

  Along the way, we lost a noble man:

  My love, a scoundrel and a warrior.

  Our star wars face a newfound enemy,

  What cometh next is mystery to me.

  Enter CHORUS as epilogue.

  CHORUS

  Young Rey, Chewbacca, and the droid R2

  Pursue the map the droids did make complete.

  Through space they fly with lightspeed’s blazing hue

  In hopes that they Luke Skywalker shall meet.

  Unto an unknown system do they fly,

  Wherein an island sits in ocean deep.

  They land the ship, debark, and, by and by,

  Rey mounts the steps toward a mountain steep.

  Thereon she finds a man in robe of gray,

  Who turns to her his bearded, wizen’d face:

  It is the Jedi, Luke Skywalker, yea—

  Rey offers him his lightsaber with grace.

  There end we—the next chapter we await:

  ’Twill come as sure as seven leads to eight.

  [Exeunt omnes.

  END.

  AFTERWORD.

  Like everyone else, I awaited December 17, 2015, with excitement and anticipation. Unlike everyone else, as I watched the movie I was thinking, “Hmm, there could be a soliloquy there…” “How will I stage that scene?” “I could have fun with that character…” (For the record, I saw The Force Awakens four times in the theater. Some of you will laugh at that because it’s so many, and others scoff because it’s so few.)

  William Shakespeare’s The Force Doth Awaken was great fun to write because I was able to revisit favorite characters from the original trilogy and introduce new characters to the Shakespeare’s Star Wars series. Of course, a new cast of characters means new opportunities to play with language. I won’t give everything away, but here are some hints to what I did: Rey’s longer soliloquies reference the many fan theories of her heritage; every line Finn speaks includes the letters of his stormtrooper name; each of Poe’s lines includes a phrase from the verses of a famous Poe-t; and all of BB-8’s lines can be deciphered if you know the (skip) code.

  Among the new characters are new villains. A while back, Erik Didriksen (author of Pop Sonnets) and I tossed around the idea of a collection of “Villain Villanelles,” that is, a group of poems written about or from the perspective of various well-known villains from literature and film, each conforming to the structure and rhyme scheme of a villanelle. We didn’t get very far with the project, but I resurrected the idea in William Shakespeare’s The Force Doth Awaken. Each of the three main villains in this book—Kylo Ren, General Hux, and Supreme Leader Snoke—speaks one villanelle during the story.

  The characters from the original trilogy who return in William Shakespeare’s The Force Doth Awaken keep their conventions from the previous books: Han and Leia speak in rhyming quatrains; Admiral Ackbar’s lines end in an -ap sound; and R2-D2 speaks in English in asides to the audience. One change from my earlier books is that I finally give Chewbacca his due. That’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and it’s especially appropriate given the loss he suffers in this episode.

  Speaking of loss, while this book was being finished, the wonderful, charismatic, and outrageous Carrie Fisher died. It was a sad day for Star Wars fans everywhere, and we will all miss our beloved Leia, who, as Lor San Tekka states, is royalty. As Shakespeare said, “Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet princess: and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!”

  Onward and upward to Episode VIII! People often ask me if I see the Star Wars scripts early or get advance knowledge of the plot. Nope. I experience the movies just like you, as a fan sitting in a movie theater wondering what will happen next. Look for me—I’ll be the one with his head bent at a funny angle, mumbling, “How would Shakespeare do this?”

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

  This book is dedicated to my nieces, Aracelli, Addison, and Sophie. They bring a smile to my face whenever I see them. Their parents—Erik and Em, Joel and Sibyl—are doing good work.

  To my family, as always, a deep thank-you for supporting me: my parents, Bob and Beth; my brother Erik and his family; and my aunt Holly. Thank you to my friend Josh Hicks, the person I text, email, and call when I need to geek out. Thank you to his wife, Alexis Kaushansky, and baby Ruby, who don’t mind. Thank you, Murray Biggs, my former professor and current friend, for adding greatly to my knowledge of Shakespeare’s language (though he’ll be quick to point out that all the mistakes are mine). Thank you to the amazing team at Quirk Books: Jason Rekulak, Rick Chillot, Nicole De Jackmo, Brett Cohen, Christina Schillaci, Jane Morley, Tim O’Donnell, Doogie Horner, and the rest of the crew. Thank you to Nicolas Delort for delightful illustrations.

  Thank you to all the others who have touched these projects and supported me as I wrote: Heidi Altman and Scott Roehm, Heather Antos, Jack and Judy Bevilacqua, Jane Bidwell, Travis Boeh and Sarah Woodburn, Chris Buehler and Marian Hammond, Erin and Nathan Buehler, Melody and Jason Burton, Jeff and Caryl Creswell, Kathy Douglass, Jeanette Ehmke, Mark Fordice, Tom George and Kristin Gordon, Jim and Nancy Hicks, Anne Huebsch, Apricot, David, Isaiah and Oak Irving, Jerryn Johnston, Bobby Lopez, Chris and Andrea Martin, Bruce McDonald, Joan and Grady Miller, Jim Moiso, Michael Morrill and Tara Schuster, Lucy and Tim Neary, Dave Nieuwstraten, Omid Nooshin, Bill Rauch, Julia Rodriguez-O’Donnell, Helga and Michael Scott, Naomi Walcott and Audu Besmer, Ryan, Nicole, Mackinzie, Audrey and Lily Warne-McGraw, Steve Weeks, Jordan White, Ryan Wilmot, Ben and Katie Wire, Ethan Youngerman and Rebecca Lessem, and Dan Zehr.

  My spouse, Jennifer, is a constant source of inspiration and love—thank you, Jennifer. Thank you to my son Liam, who learned to play the S
tar Wars theme song on the piano just for me. Finally, a HUGE thank-you to my son Graham, who let me borrow his Star Wars: The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary, without which I could not have written this book!

  QUIRKBOOKS.COM

  quirkbooks.com/theforcedothawaken

  WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564–1616) was a poet and playwright. He is widely considered one of the greatest writers in the English language.

  GEORGE LUCAS is a film producer, screenwriter, director, and the creator of the Star Wars motion picture saga. He lives in California.

  IAN DOESCHER is the New York Times best-selling author of William Shakespeare’s Star Wars. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his family. Visit him at IanDoescher.com.