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, hush! 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:
Hush, hush! 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.
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