Clopin: MORNING IN PARIS, THE CITY AWAKES TO THE BELLS OF NOTRE DAME THE FISHERMAN FISHES, THE BAKERMAN BAKES TO THE BELLS OF NOTRE DAME
TO THE BIG BELLS AS LOUD AS THE THUNDER TO THE LITTLE BELLS SOFT AS A PSALM AND SOME SAY THE SOUL OF THE CITY'S THE TOLL OF THE BELLS THE BELLS OF NOTRE DAME
Listen, they're beautiful, no? So many colours of sounds, so many changing moods. Because, you know, they don't ring all by themselves.
Puppet: They don't?!?
Clopin: No, silly boy. Up there, high, high in the dark bell tower, lives the mysterious bell ringer. Who is this creature?
Puppet: Who?
Clopin: What is he?
Puppet: What?
Clopin: How did he come to be there?
Puppet: How?
Clopin: Hush!
Puppet: Ohhh...
Clopin: And Clopin will tell you. It is a tale, a tale of a man and a monster!
(A wipe to a dark night. A band of gypsies quietly proceeding down the Seine, hoping to avoid detection. A baby in the woman's arms begins to cry.)
Clopin: DARK WAS THE NIGHT WHEN OUR TALE WAS BEGUN ON THE DOCKS NEAR NOTRE DAME
Gypsy 1: Shut it up, will you!
Gypsy 2: We'll be spotted!
Gypsy Mother: Hush, little one!
Clopin: FOUR FRIGHTENED GYPSIES SLID SILENTLY UNDER THE DOCKS NEAR NOTRE DAME
Boatman: Four gilders for safe passage into Paris.
Clopin: BUT A TRAP HAD BEEN LAID FOR THE GYPSIES AND THEY GAZED UP IN FEAR AND ALARM AT A FIGURE WHOSE CLUTCHES WERE IRON AS MUCH AS THE BELLS
Gypsy: Judge Claude Frollo!
Clopin: THE BELLS OF NOTRE DAME
JUDGE CLAUDE FROLLO LONGED TO PURGE THE WORLD OF VICE AND SIN AND HE SAW CORRUPTION EVERYWHERE EXCEPT WITHIN.
Frollo: Bring these gypsy vermin to the Palace of Justice.
Guard: (To mother) You there! What are you hiding!?!
Frollo: Stolen goods, no doubt. Take them from her.
Clopin: She ran!
(As the gypsy mother tries to escape with her baby, Judge Frollo gives chase on horseback. She reaches the doors of Notre Dame and pounds on them.)
Gypsy Mother: Sanctuary! Please give us sanctuary!
(Frollo finally catches up to her on the steps of the cathedral. He rips the still covered bundle from her arms, and kicks her, sending her crashing to the cement steps, where she is knocked unconscious. The baby begins to cry.)
Frollo: A baby?
(Frollo uncovers the baby's head, seeing the deformed infant.)
Frollo: A monster!
(He looks around, searching for a way to dispose of the creature. He sees a well, and rides over to it. He is about to drop the baby down the well when a voice (a lightning flash between Clopin and the Archdeacon) shouts out.)
Archdeacon: Stop!
Clopin: Cried the archdeacon.
Frollo: This is an unholy demon. I'm sending it back to hell, where it belongs!
Archdeacon: SEE THERE THE INNOCENT BLOOD YOU HAVE SPILT ON THE STEPS OF NOTRE DAME.
Frollo: I am guiltless--she ran, I pursued.
Archdeacon: NOW YOU WOULD ADD THIS CHILD'S BLOOD TO YOUR GUILT ON THE STEPS OF NOTRE DAME.
Clopin: My conscience is clear!
Archdeacon: YOU CAN LIE TO YOURSELF AND YOUR MINIONS YOU CAN CLAIM THAT YOU HAVEN'T A QUALM BUT YOU