"Vincent's Letters to Catherine" form a collection of eight recordings, which were originally produced for a Beauty and the Beast telephone entertainment line in 1991. Callers dialed a 900 phone number and paid $1.95 for the first minute, and $.95 per additional minute to listen to an introductory statement followed by a four to six minute letter. Ron Koslow wrote the text for the Letters, and Ron Perlman read them in character as Vincent, much as he did for the poetry selections of the 1989 album, Of Love and Hope.
In each letter, Vincent communicates to Catherine his reflections and
responses to events that occurred during one of the first eight episodes of the
TV series, in USA Airing Order.
The original announcement introducing each audio letter stated:
Hello, and thank you for calling the Beauty and the Beast Letter Line.
The Last Will and Testament of Catherine Chandler provided that the entirety of her estate be placed in trust for the benefit of Jacob Wells and the members of his community. Her only request was that Father deliver a hand-carved rosewood box to Vincent. The box contained Vincent's letters. All of his letters, written to Catherine over the course of their time together. As a tribute to her memory, and a reminder of what is possible, here now are Vincent's letters to Catherine.
Most of the Letters feature poetry readings. The following list identifies the
literary references in each letter.
1 - Once Upon a Time in the City of New York: Edwin Arnold, "Destiny"
(1853)
2 - Terrible Savior: NA
3 - Siege: Ernest Dowson, "Vitae Summa Brevis Spem Nos Vetat Incohare
Longam" (1896)
4 - No Way Down: Emily Dickinson, "The first Day's Night had come"
(1862)
5 - Masques: Robert Browning, "Now" (1889)
6 - The Beast Within: Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "In Memoriam
A.H.H." (1849)
7 - Nor Iron Bars a Cage: William Wordsworth, "Surprised
by Joy" (1815)
8 - Song of Orpheus: NA
Over the years, transcripts of these recordings have been documented by fans and made available on the internet. For instance, in the site of the Belgium fan Marina, one of the best ways to enjoy the letters:
http://www.mybatbpage.com/letters/letters.html
Below are the texts of the letters and the links to the recordings.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK
http://www.batbforever.com/scripts/Vletters/LW/letter1.mp3
Dearest Catherine:
As I write this letter, the world below sleeps. I am in my chamber, alone.
Thoughts and feelings rush through me. Many of these feelings I have never known
before. Some I have only known through books. Some... I could never imagine. You
may never receive this letter, but I must write it, if... only to begin to
understand, understand all these... things that are happening to me.
The night I found you in the park, the night I first saw you, proved to be both
the darkest, and the brightest night of my life. In the days before that night,
I had been filled with a growing emptiness, the deep, nameless longing that I
could not understand. It was... a shadow, and that shadow loomed inside me. I
had lost my hope. I felt, no I knew I would forever be alone. I walked that
night, the streets, the alleys, as I had walked so many nights before. The city
seemed cold and empty. The park, my place of comfort, was dark and strange. Then
something stopped me. I saw you, and my life... changed... forever. Against
everything I knew, all the rules of our community, I brought you into my world.
In my mind there was no choice, there was no time. I could feel your will to
live... it called to me...all my doubt, all my pain... lifted. Your spirit
called to me, and I knew I had to see you live. Those days I spent with you
caring for you, reading to you, watching over you, were the sweetest days I had
ever known. You trusted me. You let me give... and as you healed, I healed, too.
And then you opened your eyes, and you saw my face. I saw your fear, felt it...
cut through me. In that moment, I believed the dream was lost, but you had the
courage to look at me, to see me, to truly see, and in your eyes I saw something
I had never known. I saw a world of possibilities; for me.
I... our time was short - soon you were well. Before we parted at the basement
of your apartment building you...lay your head on my shoulder. I... I could not
speak. Even... even now there are no words. And when voices from above broke the
stillness, there was no time to say goodbye. Over and over again I have tried to
say goodbye to you, Catherine, tried to remember, tried to forget. Now I know
goodbye was never meant to be. We are part of each other. Whatever comes, we are
part of each other, and we found each other. Perhaps, that is our destiny.
Do you remember the poem I read you?
Somewhere there waiteth in this world of ours,
For one lone soul, another lonely soul.
Each choosing through all the weary hours
And meeting strangely at one sudden goal.
Then they blend, like green leaves with golden flowers
Into one beautiful and perfect whole.
And life's long night is ended,
And the way lies open onward to eternal day.*
Sleep well, my dearest Catherine, sleep well.
Vincent
* Edwin Arnold, "Destiny" (1853)
TERRIBLE SAVIOR
http://www.batbforever.com/scripts/Vletters/LW/letter2.mp3
Dearest Catherine:
I knew there would come a time, all too soon, when our bond... our trust would
be threatened. I did not know what form that threat would take, what mask it
would be wearing, or whether we would survive. But now that time has come. Much
conspires against us, against the idea of us. Your world fears what is different,
what it doesn't understand. My world fears your world's intolerance and
brutality. Every time we meet we are at risk. That risk is nothing to me, I... I
take it gladly and I would die to protect you - know that. But also know, our
greatest enemy, the greatest threat comes not from outside, but from within.
Within ourselves, our enemy's name is doubt. And if we do not do battle with it,
it will surely destroy us.
I know that what I am inspires fear, that... however hard I try to improve myself, to go gently, to embrace others, their first sight of me will always be filled with utter fear. There is nothing I can do to dispel that fear except... wait... and hope... to be seen in truth. I believed you saw me - truly. I believed you knew I would never do harm to you. Never. As I live and breathe, Catherine, never. But somewhere within you the fear and the doubt took root. You suspected, if only for a moment, that I was capable of violent crimes. The acts of a... subway vigilante. The pain I felt came, not from your suspicions, but from the sad truth that you did not yet know me, or trust me. Yes, I am capable of terrible things. Things that shame and frighten me, but so are we all.
Yes, I am capable of rage that overwhelms me, a rage that... can become
violent. But only for one purpose, only to one end. To protect my home, and the
ones I love. There is not, and cannot be another justification for violence. I
believe that. I live by it. You must believe me. There is nothing I can say, no
words to convince you. If we are to survive the danger, and live to see the
dream, finally we must trust. That is our greatest challenge. Without trust we
have nothing. All is lost. To trust is... not a decision we make. It is a voice
we hear from within. A voice that tells us that all is well. You can go...
safely. You listen to your heart - what does it say? Your heart is where your
courage lives. It speaks the truth. It is wise. I know... I can hear it.
There...there was a moment, after the storm had passed, we... stood on your
balcony in each other's arms. The dawn was coming. As the city slept, the sky
was painted in shades of gold - only for us. You remember that moment, your head
lay against my chest. All was still, all was well, and all was one. And our
hearts knew it.
Sleep well, my dearest Catherine, sleep well.
Vincent
SIEGE
http://www.batbforever.com/scripts/Vletters/LW/letter3.mp3
Dearest Catherine:
When you first came into my life, I felt I had been born into a new world, a
world I had only... read about in books, one that only lived in my imagination.
For a moment I believed in that world, in all its possibilities. A door had
opened where none existed. All of this came through you. So many new feelings
that were once only words no rushed through me. I... cannot yet describe them.
All at once they startle me, sometimes... frighten me... but always fill me with
wonder and gratitude.
But how can such happiness bring me such pain? How could I have forgotten that
though the door had opened, I could not pass through it? For me, all that was
possible was to stand at the threshold, and watch. Please know that I only want
your happiness, and yet the feelings I felt of you with another... poisoned all
that was right and good. I know what I am - I accept what I am. Envy was... a
stranger to me... now it - lives within me, mocks me. In every fiber of my being
I... struggle to conquer it. Yet if I do, what have I won? Still I am...
standing at the threshold, watching, longing for a life that can never be.
How can I be part of you when I know I must let you be part of someone else?
I've lost my way, Catherine. How can we continue? The way is filled with peril.
Can we endure what surely lies ahead? And yet, the thought of never seeing you
again is... unthinkable. I said to you that someday someone would come and you
would live another life and dream another dream. When that day comes, I will
rejoice for you. But I am not now... strong enough to do that. Perhaps I am
thinking only of myself, but I must, or this... poison called envy will...
engulf me.
There is a place in my world called the Chamber of the Falls. Someday, perhaps,
you will see it. It is... the most beautiful place I know. The sound of rushing
water soothes me. I go there often, to think. Catherine, I do not know when I
will see you again. I've always told you to follow your heart; now I must search
to... find the strength to follow my own.
They are not long, the days of wine and roses;
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.*
Sleep well, dearest Catherine, sleep well.
Vincent
* Ernest Dowson, "Vitae Summa Brevis Spem Nos Vetat Incohare Longam" (1896)
NO WAY DOWN
http://www.batbforever.com/scripts/Vletters/LW/letter4.mp3
Dearest Catherine:
I... cannot sleep - I have tried, and when I sleep, I dream, and the dream is
always the same. When I sleep, the nightmare I just survived Above continues,
so... I write to you.
It is early morning. The children will begin gathering at the Mirror Pool to
watch a new day dawn. I'm home, and I'm alive. I am - back in my world,
surrounded by friends, people I love. The nightmare I have just lived is over.
But it haunts me. Not the proximity to death, although I have never been so
close, not the terror of being lost and trapped Above. What plagues me is the
utter hatred, the evil I saw in the eyes of those who hunted me.
I have often looked on the world Below, this world beneath the streets, as my
prison. Now I see it as the extraordinary sanctuary that it is. Yes, it is a
place apart; apart from the cruelty, and brutality that seems to live in the air
Above. Our world below offers something precious. It offers safety. It offers
compassion, and trust. In the - newness and wonder of seeing your world through
your eyes, I forgot why I had been isolated for so long. I forgot the danger
that waits for me Above. I forgot such a thing as evil exists. Or, perhaps I was
never aware.
Much of what I know I know from books. There is much for me that is new. And
there are things that books can never teach us. I will never understand how
people can gain sustenance through cruelty. I struggle, but it is something I
cannot grasp. And yet, I saw it - in the eyes of those men. I felt it, in the
eyes of those men. And that is what haunts me. I know there is goodness in your
world. You are in it. There are others, too, who reach out with kindness and
generosity, and yet for every good soul, there is another waiting to annihilate
it.
In every fiber of my being I refuse to believe that darkness can envelop the
light, or that evil can mock what is good. Perhaps I... cannot allow myself to
believe it. Perhaps, what haunts me is not what I saw in the eyes of the others,
but in their eyes, I saw myself. Have I been too quick to judge? Has the
sanctuary of my world shielded me from... some terrible truth? I've always
feared the... darkness within me. And now your world forces me to confront it.
Do I have the courage to look in the mirror? Do I have the courage to look into
your eyes? In your eyes, Catherine, I see myself. Not only as I am. In your eyes
I see the truth of what can be. Of all that is possible. And now I am learning
that the truth can be as terrifying as it is wondrous.
The first day's night had come,
And grateful that a thing
So terrible had been endured,
I told my soul to sing.*
Sleep well, dearest Catherine, sleep well.
Vincent
* Emily Dickinson, "The first Day's Night had come" (1862)
MASQUES
http://www.batbforever.com/scripts/Vletters/LW/letter5.mp3
Dearest Catherine:
Less that an hour ago we parted at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. Now I sit
here writing to you, because... I know only you will understand what I am
feeling.
It is early morning. All Hallow's Eve has ended for another year, and... I have
never in my life been so happy. Was it a dream, Catherine? Did the two of us
walk the city last night, openly, together? I have known this city well, but I
have never seen it quite this way before. Many nights I have sat alone on
building tops, looking out at the glowing lights. As beautiful as those lights
were, they were always distant. From the streets below the sound of the city
would drift up to me, like an echo of a melody from far away. There were nights
when those city sounds made the most beautiful music I had ever heard. There
were nights when... I wondered if I were the only one who could hear it. Tonight
I became part of that music.
"Sometimes we must leave our safe places and walk empty-handed among our enemies".
How many times have I read those words? How many times have I presumed to
understand them? Not until I walked among the crowds, heard their laughter, felt
the warmth of their passing bodies, did I realize what those words truly meant.
Leave our safe places. Tonight I left my safe place. Tonight a dream became real.
We sat, hand in hand, on a bench by the river, like ordinary people, watching
the sun rise over the city. That one moment was worth everything, Catherine.
Everything we've risked, everything we have fought for. Everything.
Out of your whole life, give but a moment.
All of your life that has gone before,
All to come after it so you ignore,
So you make perfect the present, condense,
In a rapture of rage for perfection's endowment
Thought, and feeling, and soul, and sense
Merged in a moment which gives me at last
You, around me for once
You, beneath me
You, above me.*
Sleep well, my dearest Catherine, sleep well.
Vincent
* Robert Browning, "Now" (1889)
THE BEAST WITHIN
http://www.batbforever.com/scripts/Vletters/LW/letter6.mp3
Dearest Catherine:
Tonight I almost lost you. Tonight my greatest fear tore through me as that
bullet tore through you. I held you. I felt your life slipping away and I lived
an eternity. I saw my life without you, Catherine, and it was a loss I could not
survive. I have known hopelessness, even worse, but what struck me to the core
was this: yntil that moment I had never truly known faith.
Yes, faith. Darkness enveloped me, and yet I felt an inexplicable hope, a belief
beyond knowledge that you would live. I know now that hope, that faith, came to
me through love.
The night you told me of the risks you faced I said to go no further. That
warning came from care, but... it was also filled with fear. I was afraid of
losing you. Afraid you were not strong enough without me. I want to protect you
- we need to protect the ones we love. But now, I understand we also need to
trust. To allow the ones we love to face their risks, and find their courage,
alone.
How hard it is to let you go. How frightening it is to... trust that fate will
be kind. And yet I know I must if you are to continue to grow strong. Isn't it
strange that those we hold closest to our hearts are the ones we must also set
free. Love is not a refuge - I... think... it is a journey, and not a safe one.
It is filled with terror, and wonder. And we must go forward in courage, and in
truth. I'm with you on that journey, Catherine, wherever it leads. And on that
journey we are all as children, finding our strength, facing our fears, holding
each other by the hand.
O, yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill,
To pangs of nature, sins of will,
Defects of doubt, and taints of blood;
That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life shall be destroyed
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete.
Behold, we know not anything;
I can but trust that good shall fall
At last, far off, at last, to all,
And every winter change to spring.
So runs my dream; but what am I?
An infant crying in the night,
An infant crying for the light,
And with no language but a cry.*
Sleep well, my dearest Catherine, sleep well.
Vincent
* Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "In Memoriam A.H.H." (1849)
NOR IRON BARS A CAGE
http://www.batbforever.com/scripts/Vletters/LW/letter7.mp3
Dearest Catherine:
Those... words you read to me echo in my mind. When I... stood, forlorn,
knowing my heart's best treasure was no more. That neither present time nor
years unborn could, to my sight, that heavenly face restore.*
I thought I would never see you again. I thought I had lost you. Catherine, I...
I knew there would come a time when your path would lead you away from me. But
what I never could imagine was... the pain I felt when that day came. You must
do everything you were meant to do - for me, for both of us. To try to stop you
would be to... mock everything we believe in. And yet, to live by what is right
can sometimes be so difficult.
Our... bond has given me a freedom I've never known before. Through you, I have...
seen a world I had only dreamed of. And when that world of possibilities seemed
to end, I could not think, I could not breathe. I lost myself, and in that
moment of vulnerability I... fell prey to those that would do me harm. When I
awoke I was in a cage. Trapped, my strength, my... will, my hope had left me. I
could no longer fight. What was there to fight for? I could feel myself slipping
away.
Freedom, for me, has always been circumscribed by... who I am, by what I am. I
have never accepted those limits. From the time I was...very young I promised
myself never to become a prisoner of my fate. I took the risk. I went Above.
Father always protested, but these risks brought me great solace. The alleys and
shadows, the... rooftops were mine. They belonged to me. When I traveled them,
my freedom was limitless. But I traveled them alone. Until the night I found you.
Then we traveled them together.
When fate called you down another path, I... felt all was lost, that I'd been
forgotten. I had lost my freedom. I had lost my faith. And in that cage, I was
dying. As darkness clouded my sight, I looked up... and saw you. I thought it
was a vision. I could not believe you had come for me. In that cage I had lost
my belief in everything but you were there to remind me that there is a power
greater than evil, greater than disillusionment, greater than fear. You were
there to remind me. For that - for everything, there are no words except - thank
you.
Sleep well, my dearest Catherine, sleep well.
Vincent
* William Wordsworth, "Surprised by Joy" (1815)
SONG OF ORPHEUS
http://www.batbforever.com/scripts/Vletters/LW/letter8.mp3
Dearest Catherine:
It's been a week now since Margaret passed away. Father has begun to heal. I...
I think what makes this possible are those seven days they spent together, in
love. It seems that Margaret awakened something in Father that I had never seen
before. It is as if a missing piece has been restored; a piece of his innocence,
a piece of his youth.
Margaret was a longing he carried with him, a painful memory of what he left
behind. The years could not diminish that longing. Before, there was always...
sadness in Father's eyes... I could not understand. It was a secret he kept
hidden from all of us. A secret he could never share, until now. I suppose we
all carry our secrets, like winter garments we are unable to shed because we
cannot believe spring has finally come.
All my life I have kept a secret, Catherine, but I can keep it no longer from
you. From the time I was young, I dreamt of... being held close, close enough to
someone to feel the warmth of their body against mine. I longed for it.
Sometimes, I ached for it. To be... held, tenderly, against the breast of a
woman. To have my head stroked gently, to hear a voice whisper that all is safe
and well. And I dreamt of holding someone in my arms, holding and feeling their
heart beat within mine. But always there was the hunger. At first I... did not
know what it was, what I did. That hunger terrified me. Where would it take me?
Would I loose myself? Would my... hunger destroy what I held most dear? But
those dreams were only intimations... shadows of what could be, until the night
I found you.
Catherine, you gave a... name to those feelings, a face to those dreams. And now
I know what frightened me so. Everytime I hold you I feel such peace, until...
the hunger begins to stir inside me. Do not be frightened - I would take my life
before I would endanger yours. And so I... struggle with myself. Where does this...
path lead? Wh-what shall we do? Perhaps... the only way is to... hold each other
close, and take a leap of faith... into the dark night.
Sleep well, my dearest Catherine, sleep well.
Vincent
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