- Juan Borgia: I should come with you, Father.
- Rodrigo Borgia: We need you here. You must charm the King as long as possible, giving us time to move northward, and for Spain to lay siege to Naples.
- Lucrezia Borgia: But Father, the last time Charles came to Rome, you remained.
- Rodrigo Borgia: Last time, Charles believed us weak, we believed *ourselves* weak. There was no threat to him. Now the outcome is unknowable.
- Lucrezia Borgia: So, when you are weak, you stay, but when you are strong, you flee?
- Rodrigo Borgia: As long as even one Borgia dwells in Rome, our travels cannot be seen as flight, because your presence is a sign of our intention to return.
- Lucrezia Borgia: But why must both of us stay?
- Rodrigo Borgia: Charles will do you no harm.
- Lucrezia Borgia: How can you be certain? You said no one would harm my mother.
- Rodrigo Borgia: Because Juan will agree, on our behalf, to all the King's demands. Drown him in yeses. Any concordat can be reversed.
- Juan Borgia: Holiness, I will reflect you as my armor does the sun.
- [first lines]
- Shahzadeh Djem: You're in peril, Cesare. We Turks are masters of chess.
- Cesare Borgia: You mean masters of the sneak attack.
- Shahzadeh Djem: How much longer 'til we move on, 'til we reach Naples?
- Cesare Borgia: With this weather? Quite a while.
- Shahzadeh Djem: Istanbul is never so damp. The chill...
- Royal Attendant: [announcing] King Charles.
- Shahzadeh Djem: [jumping to his feet] Majesty, to what do we owe the honor?
- King Charles VIII: I come bearing a dispatch, which I feel compelled to deliver in person. Shahzadeh, your son is dead. My condolences.
- King Charles VIII: [reading] My son, murdered by my brother.
- Shahzadeh Djem: [reading] My son Murdered by my brother. Bajazet cut off my boy's head. Oguzhan was only two years old.
- Cesare Borgia: God, Allah, he will see that your son is nurtured and treasured.
- Shahzadeh Djem: A man who kills a child is no man!
- [begins weeping]
- Rodrigo Borgia: Just as 30,000 Venetian soldiers move in concert with King Ferdinand's army to attack the French by land and sea, you suddenly arrive to announce Milan's change of allegiance. The French must be finished, for Lord knows the Sforza only join the side which holds victory in its grasp.
- Cardinal Sforza: How are we any different than you, Holiness?
- Alfonso D'Este: I am being fumigated in a mercury bath. Uh, You look beautiful.
- Lucrezia Borgia: What is that on your face?
- Alfonso D'Este: I have contracted the Great Pox. That is why I am in Rome, for the best in medicinal treatments.
- Lucrezia Borgia: You have the French disease?
- Alfonso D'Este: Funny, the French call it the Italian disease. Uh, I'm told the pox actually came from the New World.
- Lucrezia Borgia: And I am told the pox is contracted by sleeping with whores.
- [last lines]
- Lucrezia Borgia: [through the door] We beg sanctuary. We are running for our lives. Please, I beseech you, take us in.
- Columba of Rieti: You seek sanctuary? From whom?
- Lucrezia Borgia: From my father.
- Columba of Rieti: Your father?
- Lucrezia Borgia: Pope Alexander VI, Supreme Pontiff of Holy Mother Church.
- Rosalina della Mirandola: [at the door in tears] My father has disowned me. I am dead, Lucrezia. I am dead.
- Lucrezia Borgia: No, you stupid fool. You're not dead until you are dead.
- Rosalina della Mirandola: Well, what should I do?
- Lucrezia Borgia: Tell Lord Jaches that this is rumor, tavern gossip. That you are still a virgin.
- Rosalina della Mirandola: You Borgia are all the same, a cabal of liars!
- Lucrezia Borgia: Then suffer with your truth!
- Rosalina della Mirandola: [gets up onto the open window]
- Lucrezia Borgia: Rosalina?
- Rosalina della Mirandola: "You are not dead until you are dead."
- [leans back and falls]
- Lucrezia Borgia: Oh!