Frollo Quotes in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

Frollo: Shall we review your alphabet today?

Quasimodo: Oh, yes, Master. I would like that very much.

Frollo: Very well. A?

Quasimodo: Abomination.

Frollo: B?

Quasimodo: Blasphemy?

Frollo: C?

Quasimodo: C-C-Contrition.

Frollo: D?

Quasimodo: Damnation?

Frollo: E?

Quasimodo: Eternal damnation.

Frollo: Good. F?

Quasimodo: Festival.

Frollo: [nearly chokes] Excuse me?

Quasimodo: F-F-Forgiveness.

Frollo: You, Gypsy girl! Get down at once!

Esmeralda: Yes, Your Honor. Just as soon as I free this poor creature.

Frollo: I for-bid it!

[Esmeralda cuts the ropes tying Quasimodo to the wheel]

Frollo: How dare you defy me?

Esmeralda: You mistreat this poor boy the same way you mistreat my people. You speak of justice, yet you are cruel to those most in need of your help!

Frollo: Silence!

Esmeralda: Justice!

[the crowd gasps in amazement]

Frollo: Mark my words, Gypsy, you will pay for this insolence.

Esmeralda: Then it appears we've crowned the wrong fool. The only fool I see is you!

[tosses King of Fool's crown at Frollo's feet]

Frollo: This is an unholy demon. I'm sending it back to hell, where it belongs.

The Archdeacon: [singing] See, there, the innocent blood you have spilt on the steps of Notre Dame.

Frollo: I am guiltless. She ran, I pursued.

The Archdeacon: [singing] Now you would add this child's blood to your guilt on the steps of Notre Dame!

Frollo: My conscience is clear.

The Archdeacon: [singing] You can lie to yourself and your minions, you can claim that you haven't a qualm, but you never can run from nor hide what you've done from the eyes!

[pointing to statues of saints]

The Archdeacon: The very eyes of Notre Dame!

Frollo: [as Quasimodo towers over him after he throws Frollo to the floor and steals his sword] Now, now... L-Listen to me, Quasimodo...

Quasimodo: [wailing accusingly] No, *you* listen! All my life, you have told me that the world is a dark, cruel place. But now I see that the only thing dark and cruel about it is people like you...!

Esmeralda: [awakening] Quasimodo?

Quasimodo: [skipping over to her and scooping her up] Esmeralda!

Frollo: She lives.

[he draws his sword]

Quasimodo: *No*!

[Frollo climbs atop a gargoyle and raises his sword to Esmeralda and Quasimodo. His eyes burn yellow with pure hate and malice]

Frollo: And he shall smite the wicked and *plunge* them into the firey pit!

[the gargoyle upon which he stands starts to break apart and he stumbles but holds onto it. It comes to life and roars in his face as it breaks off completely and falls to city below, taking a screaming Frollo with it]

Quasimodo: You are good to me master. I'm sorry.

Frollo: You're forgiven. But remember Quasimodo, this is your sanctuary.

[Frollo leaves]

Quasimodo: My sanctuary.

Frollo: [singing] God have mercy on her / God have mercy on me / But she will be mine or she... will... BURN!

[after the night with the visions]

Phoebus: Good morning, sir. Are you feeling all right?

Frollo: I had a little trouble with the fireplace.

Frollo: [singing] Protect me, Maria / Don't let the siren cast her spell / Don't let her fire sear my flesh and bone / Destroy Esmeralda / And let her taste the fires of hell / Or else let her be mine and mine alone.

Frollo: [picks up one of Quasimodo's wooden figures] Isn't this one new? It's awfully good. Looks very much like the Gypsy girl. I know... you helped her ES-CAPE!

Quasimodo: But I...

Frollo: And now all Paris is burning because of YOU!

Quasimodo: She was kind to me, Master.

Frollo: [destroying all of Quasi's wooden figures] You idiot! That wasn't kindness, it was cunning! She's a Gypsy!

[pulling Quasi by the collar]

Frollo: Gypsies are not capable of real love!

[shaking Quasi]

Frollo: Think, boy! Think of your MOTHER!

Frollo: Dear boy, whomever are you talking to?

Quasimodo: My... friends.

Frollo: I see.

Frollo: [taps the head of one of the gargoyles] And what are your friends made of, Quasimodo?

Quasimodo: Stone.

Frollo: Can stone talk?

Quasimodo: No, it can't.

Frollo: That's right. You're a smart lad.

Frollo: Look at that disgusting display.

Phoebus: [raising his visor] Yes, sir!

Frollo: The sentence for insubordination is death. Such a pity. You threw away a promising career.

Phoebus: Consider it my highest honor, sir.

Brutish Guard: Minister Frollo, the gypsy has escaped.

Frollo: What?

Brutish Guard: She's nowhere in the cathedral. She's gone.

Frollo: But how? I...

[pause]

Frollo: Never mind. Get out, you idiot. I'll find her. I'll find her if I burn down all of Paris!

Frollo: The Gypsies live outside the normal order. Their heathen ways inflame the people's lowest instincts. And they must be stopped.

Phoebus: I was summoned from the wars to capture fortune-tellers and palm readers?

Frollo: Ah, the real war, Captain, is what you see before you. For twenty years I have been "taking care" of the Gypsies...

[squashes ants on the sill]

Frollo: ...one by one. And yet, for all my success, they have thrived.

[lifts block to expose a swarm of bugs]

Frollo: I believe they have a safe haven within the walls of this very city. A nest, if you will. They call it the Court of Miracles.

Phoebus: What are we going to do about it, sir?

[Frollo smashes the block over the bugs]

Phoebus: You make your point quite vividly, sir.

Frollo: [singing] It's not my fault...

Chorus: Mea culpa

[My fault]

Frollo: I'm not to blame...

Chorus: Mea culpa

[My fault]

Frollo: It is the Gypsy girl / The witch who sent this flame.

Chorus: Mea maxima culpa

[My most grievous fault]

Frollo: It's not my fault...

Chorus: Mea culpa

[My fault]

Frollo: If in God's plan...

Chorus: Mea culpa

[My fault]

Frollo: He made the Devil so much stronger than a man.

Chorus: Mea maxima culpa

[My most grievous fault]

Frollo: I should have known you would risk your life to save that Gypsy witch, just as your own mother died trying to save you.

Quasimodo: What?

Frollo: Now, I'm going to do what I should have done... TWENTY YEARS AGO!

[he throws one end of his cloak over Quasi, and he falls off, but manages to grab the rail and pull Frollo down with the other end of his cloak]

Frollo: [as Quasi hesitantly reaches down to pick up a loose grape so as not to wake the unconscious Pheobus, who is hidden under the table] I think... you're hiding something.

Quasimodo: [sitting back up] Oh no, Master, I... There's no...

Frollo: [interrupting] You're not eating, boy.

Quasimodo: [gobbling his grapes] 'Tis very good. Thank you.

[we hear Pheobus groan]

Quasimodo: Mmmm.

[Pheobus groans again, then Quasi kicks him in the chin to silence him, then coughs loudly to cover up the noise]

Quasimodo: Seeds.

Phoebus: [as Quasimodo is cruelly humiliated by the crowd] Sir, request permission to stop this cruelty.

Frollo: In a moment, captain. A lesson needs to be learned here.

Frollo: [supervising someone being whipped, just as Phoebus arrives] Stop.

Torturer: Sir?

Frollo: Ease up. Wait between lashes. Otherwise, the old sting will dull him to the new.

Torturer: Yes, sir.

Frollo: [turns to Phoebus] Ah, so this is the gallant Captain Phoebus, home from the wars.

Phoebus: Reporting for duty as ordered, sir.

Frollo: Your service record precedes you, Phoebus. I expect nothing but the best from a war hero of your caliber.

Phoebus: And you shall have it, sir. I guarantee it.

Frollo: Yes. You know, my last captain of the guards was, um, a bit of a disappointment to me.

[whip crack, followed by screaming]

Frollo: Well, no matter, I'm sure you'll... *whip* my men into shape.

Phoebus: Well, that's a great... tremendous honor, sir.

Frollo: And look what else I've caught in my net. Captain Phoebus, back from the dead. Another "miracle", no doubt. I shall remedy that.

Frollo: [to Quasimodo] Quasimodo, can't you understand? When your heartless mother abandoned you as a child, anyone else would have drowned you. And this my thanks for taking you in and raising you as my son?

[Quasimodo is chained down, the gargoyles are encouraging him to free free himself]

Hugo: Come on, Quasi, snap out of it!

Victor: Your friends are down there!

Quasimodo: [despondently and weakly] It's all my fault.

Laverne: [as she, Hugo, and Victor try tugging the chains] You gotta break these chains!

Quasimodo: [sulkingly] I can't. I tried. What difference would it make?

Victor: But you can't let Frollo *win*!

Quasimodo: [despondently again] He already has.

Hugo: [dropping the chains] Say, you're giving up? That's it?

Laverne: These chains aren't what's holding you back, Quasimodo.

Quasimodo: [snapping firmly] Leave me alone!

Hugo: [meekly] Okay. Okay, Quasi. We'll leave you alone.

Victor: After all, we're only made out of stone.

[he and Hugo turn to stone]

Laverne: We just thought maybe you were made of somethin' stronger.

[turns to stone]

Laverne: [pause; Frollo's voice drifts up from below]

Frollo: For justice, for Paris, and for her own salvation, it is my sacred duty to send this unholy demon... back where she belongs!

[he fires the kindling while the crowd indistinctly shouts in protest]

Quasimodo: *Nooooooooooooooo!*

[the chains snap taut, the bells resonate as the pillars Quasimodo is chained to break and fall]

Esmeralda: What are you doing?

Frollo: [caressing her neck] I was just imagining a rope around that beautiful neck.

[she elbows him in the gut so he loses his grip]

Esmeralda: [snarls] I know what you were "imagining."

Frollo: [after locking in the miller and his family] Burn it.

Phoebus: What?

Frollo: Until it smolders, these people are traitors, and must be made examples of.

Phoebus: With all due respect, sir, I was not trained to murder the innocent.

Frollo: But you were trained to follow orders.

[Phoebus douses his torch]

Frollo: Insolent coward!

Frollo: The time has come, Gypsy. You stand upon the brink of the abyss. Yet even now it is not too late. I can save you from the flames of this world, and the next. Choose me, or the fire.

[Esmeralda spits in Frollo's face]

Frollo: The Gypsy Esmeralda has refused to recant. This evil witch has put the soul of every person in Paris in awful jeopardy...

Frollo: [to Esmeralda] You've chosen a magnificent prison, but it is a prison nonetheless. Set one foot outside, and you're mine.

Quasimodo: [whispering to Frollo; bitterly but firmly] You killed her.

Frollo: It was my duty. Horrible as it was, I hope you'll forgive me.

[Quasimodo continues to weep bitterly]

Frollo: There, there, Quasimodo. I know it hurts. But now the time has come to end your suffering...

[raises a dagger above Quasimodo]

Frollo: Forever.

Frollo: Captain Phoebus, arrest her!

Frollo: [to Quasimodo] Oh, my dear Quasimodo. You don't know what it's like out there. I do. I do.

[sings]

Frollo: The world is cruel, the world is wicked / It's I alone that you can trust in this whole city. / I am your only friend. / I who keep you, teach you, feed you, dress you / I who look upon you without fear. / How can I protect you boy, unless you always stay in here, / Away in here?

Frollo: [to his soldiers after Pheobus escapes on Frollo's steed] Get him! And *don't* hit my horse!

Phoebus: I'm sorry sir, she claimed sanctuary. There's nothing I can do.

Frollo: Then drag her outside and...

The Archdeacon: Frollo! You will not touch her!

[addressing Esmeralda]

The Archdeacon: Don't worry. Minister Frollo learned years ago to respect the sanctity of the church.

The Archdeacon: [coming downstairs] Frollo, have you gone mad? I will not tolerate this assault on the house of God!

Frollo: [flinging the Archdeacon down the stairwell] Silence, you old fool! The hunchback and I have unfinished business to attend to. And this time, you will not interfere.

Oafish Guard: Sir, we have looked everywhere and there's still no sign of the gypsy girl.

Frollo: I had the entire cathedral surrounded. Guards in every door. There was no way she could've escaped. Unless...

Frollo: Ah, duty calls. Have you ever attended a peasant festival, captain?

Phoebus: Not recently, sir.

Frollo: Then this should be quite an education for you. Come along.

Frollo: [announcing to the gypsies at the Court of Miracles] There'll be a little bonfire in the square tomorrow, and you're all invited to attend.

[to his guards]

Frollo: Lock them up.

Quasimodo: [rushing forward] No! Please, Master!

[Frollo turns and glares at him, as if to say, "You've disobeyed me". He walks away as Quasi grovels sorrowfully]

Quasimodo: No, no...

Frollo: [to his remaining guards] Take him back to the bell tower, and make sure he says there.

Frollo: I should have known you'd risk your life to save that Gypsy witch! Just as your own mother died trying to save you.

Quasimodo: [shocked] What?

Frollo: Now, I'm going to do what I should have done... twenty years ago!

Frollo: Remember what I've taught you, Quasimodo.

[singing]

Frollo: You are deformed...

Quasimodo: [singing] I am deformed.

Frollo: [singing] And you are ugly...

Quasimodo: [singing] And I am ugly.

Frollo: [singing] And these are crimes for which the world shows little pity / You do not comprehend...

Quasimodo: [singing] You are my one defender.

Frollo: [singing] Out there they'll revile you as a monster...

Quasimodo: [singing] I am a monster.

Frollo: [singing] Out there they will hate and scorn and jeer...

Quasimodo: [singing] Only a monster.

Frollo: [singing] Why invite their calumny and consternation? / Stay in here / Be faithful to me...

Quasimodo: [singing] I'm faithful.

Frollo: [singing] Be grateful to me...

Quasimodo: [singing] I'm grateful.

Frollo: [singing] Do as I say, obey, and stay.

Frollo, Quasimodo: [singing] In here.

Frollo: The press should be destroyed and the printer hanged for blasphemy.