King Lear's Wife; The Crier by Night; The Riding to Lithend; Midsummer-Eve Part 4

Envy and greed are watching me aloof (Yes, now none of the women will walk with me), Longing to see me ruined, but she'll do it....

It is a lonely thing to love a king....

_She puts her cheek gradually closer and closer to LEAR'S cheek as she speaks: at length he kisses her suddenly and vehemently, as if he would grasp her lips with his: she receives it pa.s.sively, her head thrown back, her eyes closed._

LEAR.

Goldilocks, when the crown is couching in your hair And those two mingled golds brighten each other's wonder, You shall produce a son from flesh unused-- Virgin I chose you for that, first crops are strongest-- A tawny fox with your high-stepping action, With your untiring power and glittering eyes, To hold my lands together when I am done, To keep my lands from crumbling into mouthfuls For the short jaws of my three mewling vixens.

Hatch for me such a youngster from my seed, And I and he shall rein my hot-breathed wenches To let you grind the edges off their teeth.

GORMFLAITH, _shaking her head sadly._ Life holds no more than this for me; this is my hour.

When she is dead I know you'll buy another Queen-- Giving a county for her, gaining a duchy with her-- And put me to wet nursing, leas.h.i.+ng me with the thralls.

It will not be unbearable--I've had your love.

Master and friend, grant then this hour to me: Never again, maybe, can we two sit At love together, unwatched, unknown of all, In the Queen's chamber, near the Queen's crown And with no conscious Queen to hold it from us: Now let me wear the Queen's true crown on me And s.n.a.t.c.h a breathless knowledge of the feeling Of what it would have been to sit by you Always and closely, equal and exalted, To be my light when life is dark again.

LEAR.

Girl, by the black stone G.o.d, I did not think You had the nature of a chambermaid, Who pries and fumbles in her lady's clothes With her red hands, or on her soily neck Stealthily hangs her lady's jewels or pearls.

You shall be tiring-maid to the next queen And try her crown on every day o' your life In secrecy, if that is your desire: If you would be a queen, cleanse yourself quickly Of menial fingering and servile thought.

GORMFLAITH.

You need not crown me. Let me put it on As briefly as a gleam of Winter sun.

I will not even warm it with my hair.

LEAR.

You cannot have the nature of a queen If you believe that there are things above you: Crowns make no queens, queens are the cause of crowns.

Gormflaith, _slipping from his knee._ Then I will take one. Look.

_She tip-toes lightly round the front of the bed to where the crown hangs on the wall._

LEAR.

Come here, mad thing--come back!

Your shadow will wake the Queen.

GORMFLAITH.

Hush, hus.h.!.+ That angry voice Will surely wake the Queen.

_She lifts the crown from the peg, and returns with it._

LEAR.

Go back; bear back the crown: Hang up the crown again.

We are not helpless serfs To think things are forbidden And steal them for our joy.

GORMFLAITH.

Hus.h.!.+ Hus.h.!.+ It is too late; I dare not go again.

LEAR.

Put down the crown: your hands are base hands yet.

Give it to me: it issues from my hands.

_GORMFLAITH, seating herself on his knee again, and crowning herself._

Let anger keep your eyes steady and bright To be my guiding mirror: do not move.

You have received two queens within your eyes.

_She laughs clearly, like a bird's sudden song. HYGD awakes and, after an instant's bewilderment, turns her head toward the sound; finding the bed-curtain dropt, she moves it aside a little with her fingers; she watches LEAR and GORMFLAITH for a short time, then the curtain slips from her weak grasp and she lies motionless._

LEAR, _continuing meanwhile._ Doff it. (_GORMFLAITH kisses him._) Enough. (_Kiss_) Unless you do (_Kiss_) my will (_Kiss_) I shall (_Kiss_) I shall (_Kiss_) I'll have you (_Kiss_) sent (_Kiss_) to (_Kiss_)----

GORMFLAITH. Hush.

LEAR.

Come to the garden: you shall hear me there.

GORMFLAITH.

I dare not leave the Queen.... Yes, yes, I come.

LEAR.

No, you are better here: the guard would see you.

GORMFLAITH.

Not when we reach the pathway near the apple-yard.

_They rise._

LEAR.

Girl, you are changed: you yield more beauty so.

_They go out hand in hand by the doorway at the back. As they pa.s.s the crumpled letter GORMFLAITH drops her handkerchief on it, then picks up handkerchief and letter together and thrusts them into her bosom as she pa.s.ses out._

HYGD, _fingering back the bed-curtain again._ How have they vanished? What are they doing now?

GORMFLAITH, _outside, singing to a quick, chattering tune._ If you have a mind to kiss me You shall kiss me in the dark: Yet rehea.r.s.e, or you might miss me-- Make my mouth your noontide mark....

_GORMFLAITH'S voice grows fainter as the song progresses, until all sound is lost._

HYGD.

Does he remember love-ways used with me?

Shall I never know? Is it too near?

I'll watch him at his wooing once again, Though I peer up at him across my grave-sill.

_She gets out of bed and takes several steps toward the garden doorway; she totters and sways, then, turning, stumbles back to the bed for support._

Limbs, will you die? It is not yet the time.

I know more discipline: I'll make you go.

_She fumbles along the bed to the head, then, clinging against the wall, drags herself toward the back of the room._

It is too far. I cannot see the wall.

I will go ten more steps: only ten more.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.