Rameses Quotes in The Prince of Egypt (1998)

Rameses: [singing] You who I called brother, how could you have come to hate me so? Is this what you wanted?

Chorus: [singing] I send the swarm, I send the hoard!

Rameses: [singing] Then let my heart be hardened, and never mind how high the cost may grow! This will still be so: I will never let your people go!

Moses: I figured it out. You know what your problem is, Rameses? You care too much.

Rameses: And your problem is that you don't care at all.

[laying his dead son on a bier]

Rameses: [grief-stricken] You... and your people... have my permission to go.

Rameses: [They are both late for the banquet] I'm done for, Father will kill me!

Moses: Don't worry, nobody will even notice us coming in.

[they enter, the crowd cheers loudly]

Rameses: [sarcastic] Nobody will even notice.

Rameses: I will not be the weak link!

Seti: Why do the gods torment me with such reckless, destructive, blasphemous sons?

Rameses: Father, hear what I say...

Seti: Be still! Pharaoh speaks. I seek to build an empire, and your only thought is to amuse yourselves by tearing it down! Have I taught you nothing?

Hotep: Don't be so hard on yourself, your highness. You're an excellent teacher.

Huy: It isn't your fault your sons learned nothing.

Hotep: Well, they learned blasphemy.

Huy: True.

Rameses: I will not be dictated to, I will not be threatened. I am the morning and evening star, I am Pharaoh!

Rameses: Come on, Moses, admit it. You've always looked up to me.

Moses: Yes, but it's not much of a view!

Moses: [Sarcastic] Well, that went well.

Rameses: Just go away.

Moses: It could have been worse!

Rameses: The "weak link in the chain." That's what he called me.

Moses: Well, you are rather pathetic.

Rameses: "Irresponsible... Ignorant of the traditions." He practically accused me of bringing down the dynasty!

Moses: Yeah, I can see it now. "There go the pyramids!"

[laughs]

Rameses: Second born, second place!

Rameses: And there shall be a great cry in all of Egypt, such as there never has been or ever will be again!

Rameses: Tell your people from this day forward, their work load has been doubled, thanks to your God. Or is it thanks... to you?

Tzipporah: I won't be given to anyone, especially an arrogant, pampered, palace *brat*!

Rameses: [laughs, to Moses] Are you going to let her talk to you like that?

Moses: [Scoffs] You will show the proper respect for a prince of Egypt.

Tzipporah: But I *am* showing you all the respect you deserve: None!

[Pulls rope free]

Moses: [to approaching guards] No, wait!

[Dives and grabs rope]

Moses: Be still!

Tzipporah: [Starts pulling rope] Untie this rope! I demand you set me free!

Moses: Be still!

Tzipporah: Let go!

Moses: [Notices pond behind Tzipporah, smiles] As you wish.

[Abruptly lets go]

Rameses: Ok Moses, I know you. What's this really about?

Moses: [looks at the slaves building the empire] What do you see?

Rameses: A greater Egypt than that of my father.

Moses: That is not what I see.

Rameses: Moses, I cannot change what you see. I have to maintain the ancient traditions. I bear the weight of my father's crown.

Moses: Do you still not understand what Seti was?

Rameses: He was a great leader.

Moses: His hands bore the blood of thousands of children.

Rameses: [dismissively] Slaves.

Moses: My people. And I can no longer hide in the desert while they suffer! At your hands.

Rameses: [his face falls, disappointed] So, you have returned, only to free them.

[Moses gives Rameses the ring back]

Moses: I'm sorry.

Rameses: Yes, I had hoped, that...

[He closes his eyes for a moment and then opens them angrily]

Rameses: I do not know this God. Neither will I let your people go.

Moses: Rameses, please listen...

Rameses: I will not be the weak link!

Rameses: [walking away] Tell your people as of today, their workload has been doubled, thanks to your God. Or is it thanks to you?

[He coldly shuts the door]

Rameses: Tell me this Moses, tell me this: why is it that every time you start something, I'm the one who ends up in trouble?

Baka: Will you lose a throne because Moses builds a city?

Rameses: The city that he builds shall bear my name. The woman that he loves shall bear my child. So it shall be written. So it shall be done.

Moses: [to Sethi, after Sethi came to see Moses, as he was completing the city to be built] Pharoah is pleased?

Sethi: With the obelisk, yes. But not with certain accusations made against you.

Moses: By whom?

Sethi: You raided the temple granaries?

Moses: Yes.

[Rameses puts first weight on weight scale, while weight scale on opposite side, stays up]

Sethi: You gave the grain to the slaves?

Moses: Yes.

[Rameses puts second weight on weight scale, while weight scale on opposite side, still stays up]

Rameses: You gave them one day in seven to rest.

Moses: Yes.

[Rameses puts third weight on weight scale, and scale lowered, with three weights, added together, to empty weight scale, on opposite side]

Sethi: Did you do all this to gain their favor?

Moses: [Moses then put a brick on empty weight scale, on opposite side of Rameses' weight scale, of accusations, and then said] A city is built of brick, Pharoah. The strong make many, the starving make few. The dead make none. So much for accusations.

Nefretiri: Did you think my kiss was a promise of what you'll have. No, my pompous one. It was to let you know what you will not have. I could never love you.

Rameses: Does that matter? You will be my wife. You will come to me whenever I call you, and I will enjoy that very much. Whether you enjoy it or not is your own affair... but I think you will.

Rameses: No, Moses. It is I who will possess all of her.

[to Nefretiri]

Rameses: You think when you are in my arms, it will be his face that you will see, not mine?

Nefretiri: Yes. Only his face.

Rameses: [to Moses] I defeated you in life. You shall not defeat me by your death. The dead are not scorched in the desert of desire. They do not suffer from the thirst of passion or stagger blindly towards some mirage of lost love. But you, Hebrew, will suffer all these things... by living.

Nefretiri: You will let him live!

Rameses: I will not make him a martyr for you to cherish. No phantom will come between you and me in the night. Yes, my sweet, I will let him live. Dead, you alone would possess him. From where I send him there is no returning, and you will never know if he has found forgetfulness within another woman's arms. Now look upon each other for the last time.

Rameses: Now speaks the rat that would be my ears.

Dathan: Too many ears tie a rat's tongue.

Rameses: [to Nefretiri] You are going to be mine, all mine, like my dog or my horse or my falcon. Only I will love you more and trust you less.

Nefretiri: [approaches Rameses as he is praying to an idol, over their dead son] How many more days and nights will you pray? Does he hear you?

Rameses: [praying] Dread Lord of Darkness, I have raised my voice to you, yet life has not come to the body of my son. Hear me!

Nefretiri: He cannot hear you. He's nothing but a piece of stone with the head of a bird.

Rameses: He will hear me. For I am Egypt.

Nefretiri: Egypt? You are nothing. You let Moses kill my son. No god can bring him back. What have you done to Moses? How did he die? Did he cry for mercy when you tortured him? Bring me to his body! I want to see it, Rameses! I want to see it!

Rameses: This is my son. He would have been Pharaoh. He would have ruled the world. Who mourns him now? Not even you. All you can think of is Moses. You will not see his body. I drove him out of Egypt. I cannot fight the power of his God.

Nefretiri: His God? The priests say that Pharaoh is a god, but you are not a god. You are even less than a man. Listen to me, Rameses. You thought I was evil when I went to Moses, and you were right. Shall I tell you what happened, Rameses? He spurned me like a strumpet in the street. I, Nefretiri, Queen of Egypt. All that you wanted from me he would not even take. Do you hear laughter, Pharaoh? Not the laughter of kings, but the laughter of slaves on the desert!

Rameses: [after hearing the word "laughter," he immediately became irate] Laughter? Laughter? My son I shall build your tomb upon their crushed bodies. If any escape me, their seed shall be scattered and accursed forever. My armor! The war crown! Laughter? I will turn the laughter of these slaves into wails of torment! They shall remember the name of Moses, only that he died under my chariot wheels!

Nefretiri: [Rameses then threw Nefretiri down and clanged the gong, Nefreteri still lying on ground] Kill him with your own hands.

Moses: Great one, I bring you Ethiopia.

[Trumpets play, the two Ethiopians stepped forward]

Rameses: Command them to kneel before Pharaoh.

Moses: Command what you have conquered, my brother.

Rameses: His god - IS God.

[Rameses' last line, and final scene of Pharoah and Nefretiri]

Rameses: [to Nefretiri] Did you lose your head, my sweet?

Sethi: [to Rameses] I sent you to Goshen to bring me the head of the jackal who would free the slaves. Where is it?

Rameses: The slaves do not need a deliver now. They have Moses.

Nefretiri: Is that a riddle?

Rameses: [to Sethi] He gives them the priests' grain and one day in seven to rest. They call it "The Day of Moses."

[as if it is a holiday]

Jannes: This man makes himself a god.

Nefretiri: I prefer him as a man.

Rameses: You would prefer him as Pharaoh.

Nefretiri: Are you afraid of Moses?

Rameses: Yes, because now he holds Ethiopia in his left hand, Goshen in right, and you, my Pharaoh, are in-between them.

Sethi: Do you imply that he would raise the slaves against me? I've been his father.

Jannes: Ambition knows no father.

Nefretiri: Moses could no more betray you than I could, Sethi.

Sethi: He can tell me that when he arrives.

Rameses: He will not be here, my father.

Sethi: What? I sent for both of you.

Rameses: His word is that he cannot attend you, being pressed by other matters.

Sethi: [to Nefretiri] Did you hear that? Other matters?

[Sethi spoke as in an a shout of anger, or shock]

Sethi: [Sethi then gets up and clangs a gong, for an Egyptian servant, immediately a servent appears] My escort. I will ride with you, my son, to see what rears itself in Goshen... a city or treason.

Nefretiri: [Nefreteri handed Rameses a sword as he was preparing to battle the freed Israelites] Bring it back to me, stained with his blood!

Rameses: I will... to mingle with your own!

[during the plague of the death of Egypt's firstborn]

Rameses' son: My father.

[in a weak voice, this was also Rameses' son's last line]

Rameses: My son.

Nefretiri: Your own curse is on him.

[the 'stick to cobra' combat had just occurred]

Moses: You gave me this staff to rule over scorpions and serpents, but God made it a rod to rule over kings. Hear His word, Rameses, and obey.

Rameses: Obey? Moses, Moses. Are there no magicians in Egypt, that you have come back to make serpents out of sticks or cause rabbits to appear?

Dathan: Joshua's strength didn't kill the master builder.

Rameses: Now speaks the rat that would be my ears.

Dathan: Too many ears tie a rat's tongue.

Rameses: [to the Egyptian soldiers] Go, all of you!

[turns to Dathan]

Rameses: Well... who killed him?

Dathan: I am a poor man, Generous One; what I bring is worth much.

Rameses: I have paid you much, and you have brought me nothing.

Dathan: Now I bring you the world... true Son of Pharaoh.

Rameses: You offer me the world when you cannot even bring me the deliverer. Who killed Baka?

Dathan: The deliverer.

Rameses: Would you play at words with me?

Dathan: No, Lord Prince.

Rameses: And this murderer has now fled to some distant land?

Dathan: No, Lord Prince.

Rameses: Name him.

Dathan: One who made himself a prince and judge over us; and if he knew I were here, he would kill me as he killed the Egyptian.

Rameses: I will hang you myself if you tire me further.

Dathan: There are those who would pay much for what my eyes have seen.

Rameses: Do you haggle with me like a seller of melons in the marketplace?

Dathan: No, I will not haggle, Great Prince; here's your money. But for ten talents of fine gold, I'll give you the wealth of Egypt. Give me my freedom, and I'll give you the scepter. Give me the water girl Lilia, and I'll give you the princess of your heart's desire. Give me this house of Baka, and I'll give you the throne. Give me all that I ask... or give me leave to go.

Rameses: I will give you more than leave to go; I will send you where you belong.

Dathan: I belong in your service, Glorious One.

Rameses: Very well, I will bargain with you. If what you say pleases me, I will give you your price, all of it; if not, I will give you the point of this blade through your lying throat, agreed?

Dathan: Agreed; the deliverer... is Moses.

Rameses: Draw one more breath to tell me why Moses or any other Egyptian would deliver the Hebrews?

Dathan: Moses is not Egyptian; he's Hebrew, the son of slaves.

Rameses: You have rats' ears and a ferret's nose.

Dathan: To use in your service, son of Pharaoh.

Rameses: Add to them the eyes of a weasel and find me this deliverer.

Rameses: [banishing Moses to the desert] Here is your king's scepter, and here is your kingdom, with the scorpion, the cobra, and the lizard for subjects. Free them, if you will. Leave the Hebrews to me.

Pentaur: He opens the waters before them, and he bars our way with fire! Let us go from this place! Men cannot fight against a God!

Rameses: Better to die in battle with a God than live in shame.

Rameses: Let him rave on, that men will know him mad.

Rameses: [to Dathan, as he bribes Rameses] Do you haggle with me like a seller of melons in the marketplace?

[Moses and Aaron go into Pharoah's throne and order freedom, the rod becomes a serpent. Which frightened Rameses' son]

Rameses' son: Mother! Mother! He turned his staff into a cobra!

Nefretiri: Nothing of his, will harm you my son.

Rameses: The power of your god is a cheap magicians trick. Jannes.

[then Jannes' rods become cobras, but are quickly swallowed by Moses' rod. After the cobras combat, Rameses' son kicks Moses' shin, as revenge of being scared]

Dathan: There are those who would pay much for what my eyes have seen.

Rameses: Do you haggle with me like a seller of melons in the marketplace?

Dathan: No, I will not haggle, Great Prince; here's your money. But for ten talents of fine gold, I'll give you the wealth of Egypt. Give me my freedom, and I'll give you the scepter. Give me the water girl Lilia, and I'll give you the princess of your heart's desire. Give me this house of Baka, and I'll give you the throne. Give me all that I ask... or give me leave to go.

Rameses: [draws his sword] I will give you more than leave to go; I will send you where you belong.

Dathan: I belong in your service, Glorious One.

Rameses: Very well, I will bargain with you. If what you say pleases me, I will give you your price, all of it; if not, I will give you the point of this blade through your lying throat, agreed?

Dathan: Agreed; the deliverer... is Moses.

Rameses: Draw one more breath to tell me why Moses or any other Egyptian would deliver the Hebrews?

Dathan: Moses is not Egyptian; he's Hebrew, the son of slaves.

Rameses: I will pay your price.

Nefretiri: Does the world bow to an empty throne?

Rameses: Empty?

Nefretiri: Does a Pharaoh harden his heart against his son? If you let the Hebrews go, who will build his cities? You told Moses to make bricks without straw. Now he tells you to make cities without bricks. Who is the slave and who is the Pharaoh? Do you hear laughter, Rameses? Yes, the laughter of kings... in Babylon, in Canaan, in Troy... as Egypt surrenders to the God of slaves.