King Lear's Wife Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A B CDEEFFCC G H I C JFKKFLFMN F FOPCMQRNR M C E SM C F C KRCKTSU C VNSFWX E FFCUYWS C UUWE C FCEMZFFUFFYL ECS F FCF C FA2YB2UFFFM E U C UFCYFC2FD2FE2UMA2FCF E B2UUUSUCCCFF2UU C CFCFFFFUUCKFC UFSCFFKFF W C LU E CG2CFYNB C UC E LUFH2 S F U F UYLFI2J2TFLF U N YFYL F K2UYJ2FL N FUFGFUFJ2 F FFLL2KBLH2UL N M2HUN2EUO2FFEFFP2UAF UFQ2M2LF F FFFFUR2FNULULUSS2 N LFYUT2UFS2FLEFULUFU2 NHS2UFLFGFSF F UFBLUS N FFGUL F LKYV2KUWJLW2FFKU N L F FU F F J2LLN N B U S B UBJ2 U J2NKLE2X2LS2 N R2L U J2 N J2 U Y2 N N U N V2 S N N YSZ2 F SFFLJ2 U FFR2FSLSUUA3FLY F FB T N F F L N SFKFF F ULLUFL N F U UUNUYLSLNN N SYUYSB3FC3U N F U F U LF K UVJ2 W F I2 K D3UU F F K D3L F LU F H2 Y FLUUKFF S S2 F K S E S F UU I FFU K S E L Y F F K F F E YF F FI2FUF F UF K F U UFFFFUFUF E FUF K FFFUFFE3F3B2FUGG3FFY F E S2SFFFUFUUFUK F SFSUZ2FFFFUFYFFF E TFUZUFGSFF K FFS2 E FFU F Y2 F E H3F K UF F E FFUFI3 K FF E FU V2 FJ3U U F R2FUFU K O2 E S2 K H2 E F K F U E U F F F F FK3FK3UUFFFF U F FEFF F L3U I FHJFK3FFFFFFFM3 U U F F F S U F SF F K F FKSN3FI2 F J2F F F F F F B2FS2R2 F FX2FS2 F UUS2Y U FFFYWUFS2FS2FM2 S2 TY F F2 I F S2FFS2F H2 FFS2S2F F FF F UK U F O3H3U F FFYY F US2UP3FF F FFAQ3U F F FFAFFFFFUUC2FF F K F U F F U FF S2 R3 F US2FFFUFFFS2 K F S2 F F FS3 S2 UFFFFF F FFF F UFUFFUFUFS2 F UKFFFS2V S2 FF F FFFUFFS2GT3S2FF S2 UF F S2FFFFKF S2 F F FUF S2 F F FFFFKS3YF S2 FFFS2UFF F K F F R2UF F FFFF K S2UFF F L3 F F F FKS2FF F F FFKFFF K FFFS2 F F G F F G F S2 F Y F Y F F F U3 F F H2S2F F FL3S2FF F FFS2FFUUY2UL2S2FUFS2 AFFFFS2 F FFU S2 F Y F FLFFF Z F F F FF F F F F F FF F H3 F F F YFS2FN3 U U3 FLFFFF F F U S2 V2 FFFFI3YFUFFFF F S2 K F S2 S2 S2 F F S2 F U GF F KYV3KFF S2 FFGUFFGFFFFU F YS2 S2 F S2 S2 F U S2 FYFFUKU F FS2 S2 S2 F FYFUUUUS2FFUFF U S2 YF F F S2FFYU F F F AKFS2FS2U U FLFFFFF F Y

To T S M	A
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DRAMATIS PERSONAE	B
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LEAR King of Britain	C
HYGD his Queen	D
GONERIL daughter to King Lear	E
CORDEIL daughter to King Lear	E
GORMFLAITH waiting woman to Queen Hygd	F
MERRYN waiting woman to Queen Hygd	F
A PHYSICIAN	C
TWO ELDERLY WOMEN	C
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KING LEAR'S WIFE	G
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The scene is a bedchamber in a one storied house The walls consist of a few courses of huge irregular boulders roughly squared and fitted together a thatched roof rises steeply from the back wall In the centre of the back wall is a doorway opening on a garden and covered by two leather curtains the chamber is partially hung with similar hangings stitched with bright wools There is a small window on each side of this door	H
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Toward the front a bed stands with its head against the right wall it has thin leather curtains hung by thongs and drawn back Farther forward a rich robe and a crown hang on a peg in the same wall There is a second door beyond the bed and between this and the bed's head stands a small table with a bronze lamp and a bronze cup on it Queen HYGD an emaciated woman is asleep in the bed her plenteous black hair veined with silver spreads over the pillow Her waiting woman MERRYN middle aged and hard featured sits watching her in a chair on the farther side of the bed The light of early morning fills the room	I
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Merryn	C
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Many many must die who long to live	J
Yet this one cannot die who longs to die	F
Even her sleep come now at last thwarts death	K
Although sleep lures us all half way to death	K
I could not sit beside her every night	F
If I believed that I might suffer so	L
I am sure I am not made to be diseased	F
I feel there is no malady can touch me	M
Save the red cancer growing where it will	N
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Taking her beads from her girdle she kneels at the foot of the bed	F
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O sweet Saint Cleer and sweet Saint Elid too	F
Shield me from rooting cancers and from madness	O
Shield me from sudden death worse than two death beds	P
Let me not lie like this unwanted queen	C
Yet let my time come not ere I am ready	M
Grant space enow to relish the watchers' tears	Q
And give my clothes away and calm my features	R
And streek my limbs according to my will	N
Not the hard will of fumbling corpse washers	R
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She prays silently	M
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KING LEAR a great golden bearded man in the full maturity of life enters abruptly by the door beyond the bed followed by the PHYSICIAN	C
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Lear	E
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Why are you here Are you here for ever	S
Where is the young Scotswoman Where is she	M
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Merryn	C
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O Sire move softly the Queen sleeps at last	F
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Lear continuing in an undertone	C
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Where is the young Scotswoman Where is Gormflaith	K
It is her watch I know I have marked your hours	R
Did the Queen send her away Did the Queen	C
Bid you stay near her in her hate of Gormflaith	K
You work upon her yeasting brain to think	T
That she's not safe except when you crouch near her	S
To spy with your dropt eyes and soundless presence	U
	-
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Merryn	C
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Sire midnight should have ended Gormflaith's watch	V
But Gormflaith had another kind of will	N
And ended at a godlier hour by slumber	S
A letter in her hand the night lamp out	F
She loitered in the hall when she should sleep	W
My duty has two hours ere she returns	X
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Lear	E
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The Queen should have young women about her bed	F
Fresh cool breathed women to lie down at her side	F
And plenish her with vigour for sick or wasted women	C
Can draw a virtue from such abounding presence	U
When night makes life unwary and looses the strings of being	Y
Even by the breath and most of all by sleep	W
Her slumber was then no fault go you and find her	S
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Physician	C
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It is not strange that a bought watcher drowses	U
What is most strange is that the Queen sleeps	U
Who would not sleep for all my draughts of sleep	W
In the last days When did this change appear	E
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Merryn	C
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We shall not know it came while Gormflaith nodded	F
When I awoke her and she saw the Queen	C
She could not speak for fear	E
When the rekindling lamp showed certainly	M
The bed clothes stirring about our lady's neck	Z
She knew there was no death she breathed she said	F
She had not slept until her mistress slept	F
And lulled her but I asked her how her mistress	U
Slept and her utterance faded	F
She should be blamed with rods as I was blamed	F
For slumber after a day and a night of watching	Y
By the Queen's child bed twenty years ago	L
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Lear	E
She does what she must do let her alone	C
I know her watch is now get gone and send her	S
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MERRYN goes out by the door beyond the bed	F
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Is it a portent now to sleep at night	F
What change is here What see you in the Queen	C
Can you discern how this disease will end	F
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Physician	C
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Surmise might spring and healing follow yet	F
If I could find a trouble that could heal	A2
But these strong inward pains that keep her ebbing	Y
Have not their source in perishing flesh	B2
I have seen women creep into their beds	U
And sink with this blind pain because they nursed	F
Some bitterness or burden in the mind	F
That drew the life sucklings too long at breast	F
Do you know such a cause in this poor lady	M
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Lear	E
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There is no cause How should there be a cause	U
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Physician	C
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We cannot die wholly against our wills	U
And in the texture of women I have found	F
Harder determination than in men	C
The body grows impatient of enduring	Y
The harried mind is from the body estranged	F
And we consent to go by the Queen's touch	C2
The way she moves or does not move in bed	F
The eyes so cold and keen in her white mask	D2
I know she has consented	F
The snarling look of a mute wounded hawk	E2
That would be let alone is always hers	U
Yet she was sorely tender it may be	M
Some wound in her affection will not heal	A2
We should be careful the mind can so be hurt	F
That nought can make it be unhurt again	C
Where then did her affection most persist	F
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Lear	E
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Old bone patcher old digger in men's flesh	B2
Doctors are ever itching to be priests	U
Meddling in conduct natures life's privacies	U
We have been coupled now for twenty years	U
And she has never turned from me an hour	S
She knows a woman's duty and a queen's	U
Whose then can her affection be but mine	C
How can I hurt her she is still my queen	C
If her strong inward pain is a real pain	C
Find me some certain drug to medicine it	F
When common beings have decayed past help	F2
There must be still some drug for a king to use	U
For nothing ought to be denied to kings	U
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Physician	C
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For the mere anguish there is such a potion	C
The gum of warpy juniper shoots is seethed	F
With the torn marrow of an adder's spine	C
An unflawed emerald is pashed to dust	F
And mingled there that broth must cool in moonlight	F
I have indeed attempted this already	F
But the poor emeralds I could extort	F
From wry mouthed earls' women had no force	U
In two more dawns it will be late for potions	U
There are not many emeralds in Britain	C
And there is none for vividness and strength	K
Like the great stone that hangs upon your breast	F
If you will waste it for her she shall be holpen	C
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Lear with rising voice	U
Shatter my emerald My emerald My emerald	F
A High King of Eire gave it to his daughter	S
Who mothered generations of us the kings of Britain	C
It has a spiritual influence its heart	F
Burns when it sees the sun Shatter my emerald	F
Only the fungused brain and carious mouth	K
Of senile things could shape such thought	F
My emerald	F
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HYGD stirs uneasily in her sleep	W
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Physician	C
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Speak lower low for your good fame speak low	L
If she should waken thus	U
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Lear	E
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There is no wise man	C
Believes that medicine is in a jewel	G2
It is enough that you have failed with one	C
Seek you a common stone I'll not do it	F
Let her eat heartily she is spent with fasting	Y
Let her stand up and walk she is so still	N
Her blood can never nourish her Come away	B
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Physician	C
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I must not leave her ere the woman comes	U
Or will some other woman	C
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Lear	E
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No no no no	L
The Queen is not herself she speaks without sense	U
Only Merryn and Gormflaith understand	F
She is better quiet Come	H2
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He urges the PHYSICIAN roughly away by the shoulder	S
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My emerald	F
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He follows the PHTSICIAN out by the door at the back Queen HYGD awakes at his last noisy words as he disappears	U
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Hygd	F
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I have not slept I did but close mine eyes	U
A little while a little while forgetting	Y
Where are you Merryn Ah it is not Merryn	L
Bring me the cup of whey woman I thirst	F
Will you speak to me if I say your name	I2
Will you not listen Gormflaith Can you hear	J2
I am very thirsty let me drink	T
Ah wicked woman why did I speak to you	F
I will not be your suppliant again	L
Where are you O where are you Where are you	F
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She tries to raise herself to look about the room but sinks back helplessly The curtains of the door at the back are parted and GONERIL appears in hunting dress her kirtle caught up in her girdle a light spear over her shoulder stands there a moment then enters noiselessly and approaches the bed She is a girl just turning to woman hood proud in her poise swift and cold an almost gleaming presence a virgin huntress	U
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Goneril	N
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Mother were you calling	Y
Have I awakened you	F
They said that you were sleeping	Y
Why are you left alone mother my dear one	L
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Hygd	F
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Who are you No no no Stand farther off	K2
You pulse and glow you are too vital your presence hurts	U
Freshness of hill swards wind and trodden ling	Y
I should have known that Goneril stands here	J2
It is yet dawn but you have been afoot	F
Afar and long where could you climb so soon	L
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Goneril	N
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Dearest I am an evil daughter to you	F
I never thought of you O never once	U
Until I heard a moor bird cry like you	F
I am wicked rapt in joys of breath and life	G
And I must force myself to think of you	F
I leave you to caretakers' cold gentleness	U
But O I did not think that they dare leave you	F
What woman should be here	J2
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Hygd	F
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I have forgot	F
I know not She will be about some duty	F
I do not matter my time is done nigh done	L
Bought hands can well prepare me for a grave	L2
And all the generations must serve youth	K
My girls shall live untroubled while they may	B
And learn happiness once while yet blind men	L
Have injured not their freedom	H2
For women are not meant for happiness	U
Where have you been my falcon	L
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Goneril	N
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I dreamt that I was swimming shoulder up	M2
And drave the bed clothes spreading to the floor	H
Coldness awoke me through the waning darkness	U
I heard far hounds give shivering aery tongue	N2
Remote withdrawing suddenly faint and near	E
I leapt and saw a pack of stretching weasels	U
Hunt a pale coney in a soundless rush	O2
Their elfin and thin yelping pierced my heart	F
As with an unseen beauty long awaited	F
Wolf skin and cloak I buckled over this night gear	E
And took my honoured spear from my bed side	F
Where none but I may touch its purity	F
And sped as lightly down the dewy bank	P2
As any mothy owl that hunts quick mice	U
They went crying crying but I lost them	A
Before I stept with the first tips of light	F
On Raven Crag near by the Druid Stones	U
So I paused there and stooping pressed my hand	F
Against the stony bed of the clear stream	Q2
Then entered I the circle and raised up	M2
My shining hand in cold stern adoration	L
Even as the first great gleam went up the sky	F
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Hygd	F
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Ay you do well to worship on that height	F
Life is free to the quick up in the wind	F
And the wind bares you for a god's descent	F
For wind is a spirit immediate and aged	F
And you do well to worship harsh men gods	U
God Wind and Those who built his Stones with him	R2
All gods are cruel bitter and to be bribed	F
But women gods are mean and cunning as well	N
That fierce old virgin Cornish Merryn prays	U
To a young woman yes and even a virgin	L
The poorest kind of woman and she says	U
That is to be a Christian avoid then	L
Her worship most for men hate such denials	U
And any woman scorns her unwed daughter	S
Where sped you from that height Did Regan join you there	S2
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Goneril	N
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Does Regan worship anywhere at dawn	L
The sweaty half clad cook maids render lard	F
Out in the scullery after pig killing	Y
And Regan sidles among their greasy skirts	U
Smeary and hot as they for craps to suck	T2
I lost my thoughts before the giant Stones	U
And when anew the earth assembled round me	F
I swung out on the heath and woke a hare	S2
And speared it at a cast and shouldered it	F
Startled another drinking at a tarn	L
And speared it ere it leapt so steady and clear	E
Had the god in his fastness made my mind	F
Then as I took those dead things in my hands	U
I felt shame light my face from deep within	L
And loathing and contempt shake in my bowels	U
That such unclean coarse blows from me had issued	F
To crush delicate things to bloody mash	U2
And blemish their fur when I would only kill	N
My gladness left me I careered no more	H
Upon the morning I went down from there	S2
With empty hands	U
But under the first trees and without thought	F
I stole on conies at play and stooped at one	L
I hunted it I caught it up to me	F
As I outsprang it and with this thin knife	G
Pierced it from eye to eye and it was dead	F
Untorn unsullied and with flawless fur	S
Then my untroubled mind came back to me	F
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Hygd	F
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Leap down the glades with a fawn's ignorance	U
Live you your fill of a harsh purity	F
Be wild and calm and lonely while you may	B
These are your nature's joys and it is human	L
Only to recognise our natures' joys	U
When we are losing them for ever	S
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Goneril	N
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But why	F
Do you say this to me with a sore heart	F
You are a queen and speak from the top of life	G
And when you choose to wish for others' joys	U
Those others must have woe	L
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Hygd	F
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The hour comes for you to turn to a man	L
And give yourself with the high heart of youth	K
More lavishly than a queen gives anything	Y
But when a woman gives herself	V2
She must give herself for ever and have faith	K
For woman is a thing of a season of years	U
She is an early fruit that will not keep	W
She can be drained and as a husk survive	J
To hope for reverence for what has been	L
While man renews himself into old age	W2
And gives himself according to his need	F
And women more unborn than his next child	F
May take him yet with youth	K
And lose him with their potence	U
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Goneril	N
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But women need not wed these men	L
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Hygd	F
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We are good human currency like gold	F
For men to pass among them when they choose	U
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A child's hands beat on the outside of the door beyond the bed	F
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Cordeil's Voice a child's voice outside	F
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Father Father Father Are you here	J2
Merryn ugly Merryn let me in	L
I know my father is here I want him Now	L
Mother chide Merryn she is old and slow	N
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Hygd softly	N
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My little curse Send her away away	B
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Cordeil's Voice	U
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Father O father father I want my father	S
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Goneril opening the door a little way	B
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Hush hush you hurt your mother with your voice	U
You cannot come in Cordeil you must go away	B
Your father is not here	J2
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Cordeil's Voice	U
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He must be here	J2
He is not in his chamber or the hall	N
He is not in the stable or with Gormflaith	K
He promised I should ride with him at dawn	L
And sit before his saddle and hold his hawk	E2
And ride with him and ride to the heron marsh	X2
He said that he would give me the first heron	L
And hang the longest feathers in my hair	S2
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Goneril	N
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Then you must haste to find him	R2
He may be riding now	L
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Cordeil's Voice	U
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But Gerda said she saw him enter here	J2
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Goneril	N
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Indeed he is not here	J2
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Cordeil's Voice	U
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Let me look	Y2
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Goneril	N
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You are too noisy Must I make you go	N
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Cordeil's Voice	U
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Mother Goneril is unkind to me	N
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Hygd raising herself in bed excitedly and speaking so vehemently that her utterance strangles itself	V2
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Go go thou evil child thou ill comer	S
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GONERIL with a sudden strong movement shuts the resisting door and holds it rigidly The little hands beat on it madly for a moment then the child's voice is heard in a retreating wail	N
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Goneril	N
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Though she is wilful obeying only the King	Y
She is a very little child mother	S
To be so bitterly thought of	Z2
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Hygd	F
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Because a woman gives herself for ever	S
Cordeil the useless had to be conceived	F
Like an after thought that deceives nobody	F
To keep her father from another woman	L
And I lie here	J2
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Goneril after a silence	U
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Hard and unjust my father has been to me	F
Yet that has knitted up within my mind	F
A love of coldness and a love of him	R2
Who makes me firm wary swift and secret	F
Until I feel if I become a mother	S
I shall at need be cruel to my children	L
And ever cold to string their natures harder	S
And make them able to endure men's deeds	U
But now I wonder if injustice	U
Keeps house with baseness taught by kinship	A3
I never thought a king could be untrue	F
I never thought my father was unclean	L
O mother mother what is it Is this dying	Y
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Hygd	F
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I think I am only faint	F
Give me the cup of whey	B
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GONERIL takes the cup and supporting HYGD lets her drink	T
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Goneril	N
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There is too little here When was it made	F
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Hygd	F
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Yester eve Yester morn	L
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Goneril	N
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Unhappy mother	S
You have no daughter to take thought for you	F
No servant's love to shame a daughter with	K
Though I am shamed you must have other food	F
Straightway I bring you meat	F
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Hygd	F
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It is no use	U
Plenish the cup for me Not now not now	L
But in a while for I am heavy now	L
Old Wynoc's potions loiter in my veins	U
And tides of heaviness pour over me	F
Each time I wake and think I could sleep now	L
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Goneril	N
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Then I shall lull you as you once lulled me	F
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Seating herself on the bed she sings	U
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The owlets in roof holes	U
Can sing for themselves	U
The smallest brown squirrel	N
Both scampers and delves	U
But a baby does nothing	Y
She never knows how	L
She must hark to her mother	S
Who sings to her now	L
Sleep then ladykin peeping so	N
Hide your handies and ley lei lo	N
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She bends over HYGD and kisses her they laugh softly together LEAR parts the curtains of the door at the back stands there a moment then goes away noiselessly	N
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The lish baby otter	S
Is sleeky and streaming	Y
With catching bright fishes	U
Ere babies learn dreaming	Y
But no wet little otter	S
Is ever so warm	B3
As the fleecy wrapt baby	F
'Twixt me and my arm	C3
Sleep big mousie	U
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Hygd suddenly irritable	N
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Be quiet I cannot bear it	F
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She turns her head away from GONERIL and closes her eyes	U
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As GONERIL watches her in silence GORMFLAITH enters by the door beyond the bed She is young and tall and fresh coloured her red hair coils and crisps close to her little head showing its shape Her movements are soft and unhurried her manner is quiet and ingratiating and a little too agreeable she speaks a little too gently	F
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Goneril meeting her near the door and speaking in a low voice	U
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Why did you leave the Queen Where have you been	L
Why have you so neglected this grave duty	F
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Gormflaith	K
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This is the instant of my duty Princess	U
From midnight until now was Merryn's watch	V
I thought to find her here is she not here	J2
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HYGD turns to look at the speakers then turning back closes her eyes again and lies as if asleep	W
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Goneril	F
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I found the Queen alone I heard her cry your name	I2
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Gormflaith	K
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Your anger is not too great Madam I grieve	D3
That one so old as Merryn should act thus	U
So old and trusted and favoured and so callous	U
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Goneril	F
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The Queen has had no food since yester night	F
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Gormflaith	K
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Madam that is too monstrous to conceive	D3
I will seek food I will prepare it now	L
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Goneril	F
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Stay here and know if the Queen is left again	L
You shall be beaten with two rods at once	U
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She picks up the cup and goes out by the door beyond the bed	F
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GORMFLAITH turns the chair a little away from the bed so that she can watch the jar door and seating herself draws a letter from her bosom	H2
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Gormflaith to herself reading	Y
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Open your window when the moon is dead	F
And I will come again	L
The men say everywhere that you are faithless	U
The women say your face is a false face	U
And your eyes shifty eyes Ah but I love you Gormflaith	K
Do not forget your window latch to night	F
For when the moon is dead the house is still	F
	-
	-
LEAR again parts the door curtains at the back and seeing GORMFLAITH enters At the first slight rustle of the curtains GORMFLAITH stealthily slips the letter back into her bosom before turning gradually a finger to her lips to see who approaches her	S
	-
	-
Lear leaning over the side of her chair	S2
	-
Lady what do you read	F
	-
	-
Gormflaith	K
	-
I read a letter Sire	S
	-
	-
Lear	E
	-
A letter a letter what read you in a letter	S
	-
	-
Gormflaith taking another letter from her girdle	F
	-
Your words to me my lonely joy your words	U
If you are steady and true as your gaze	U
	-
	-
Lear tearing the letter from her crumpling it and flinging it to the back of the room	I
	-
Pest	F
You should not carry a king's letters about	F
Nor hoard a king's letters	U
	-
	-
Gormflaith	K
	-
No Sire	S
	-
	-
Lear	E
	-
Must the King also stand in the presence now	L
	-
	-
Gormflaith rising	Y
	-
Pardon my troubled mind you have taken my letter from me	F
	-
	-
LEAR seats himself and takes GORMFLAITH'S hand	F
	-
	-
Gormflaith	K
	-
Wait wait I might be seen The Queen may waken yet	F
	-
	-
Stepping lightly to the led she noiselessly slips the curtain on that side as far forward as it will come Then she returns to LEAR who draws her to him and seats her on his knee	F
	-
	-
Lear	E
	-
You have been long in coming	Y
Was Merryn long in finding you	F
	-
	-
Gormflaith playing with Lear's emerald	F
	-
Did Merryn	F
Has Merryn been She loitered long before she came	I2
For I was at the women's bathing place ere dawn	F
No jewel in all the land excites me and enthralls	U
Like this strong source of light that lives upon your breast	F
	-
	-
Lear taking the jewel chain from his neck and slipping it over Gormflaith's head while she still holds the emerald	F
	-
Wear it within your breast to fill the gentle place	U
That cherished the poor letter lately torn from you	F
	-
	-
Gormflaith	K
	-
Did Merryn at your bidding then forsake her Queen	F
	-
LEAR nods	U
	-
You must not ah you must not do these masterful things	U
Even to grasp a precious meeting for us two	F
For the reproach and chiding are so hard to me	F
And even you can never fight the silent women	F
In hidden league against me all this house of women	F
Merryn has left her Queen in unwatched loneliness	U
And yet your daughter Princess Goneril has said	F
With lips that scarce held back the spittle for my face	U
That if the Queen is left again I shall be whipt	F
	-
	-
Lear	E
	-
Children speak of the punishments they know	F
Her back is now not half so white as yours	U
And you shall write your will upon it yet	F
	-
	-
Gormflaith	K
	-
Ah no my King my faithful Ah no no	F
The Princess Goneril is right she judges me	F
A sinful woman cannot steadily gaze reply	F
To the cool baffling looks of virgin untried force	U
She stands beside that crumbling mother in her hate	F
And though we know so well she and I O we know	F
That she could love no mother nor partake in anguish	E3
Yet she is flouted when the King forsakes her dam	F3
She must protect her very flesh her tenderer flesh	B2
Although she cannot wince she's wild in her cold brain	F
And soon I must be made to pay a cruel price	U
For this one gloomy joy in my uncherished life	G
Envy and greed are watching me aloof	G3
Yes now none of the women will walk with me	F
Longing to see me ruined but she'll do it	F
It is a lonely thing to love a king	Y
	-
	-
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 passively her head thrown back her eyes closed	F
	-
	-
Lear	E
	-
Goldilocks when the crown is couching in your hair	S2
And those two mingled golds brighten each other's wonder	S
You shall produce a son from flesh unused	F
Virgin I chose you for that first crops are strongest	F
A tawny fox with your high stepping action	F
With your untiring power and glittering eyes	U
To hold my lands together when I am done	F
To keep my lands from crumbling into mouthfuls	U
For the short jaws of my three mewling vixens	U
Hatch for me such a youngster from my seed	F
And I and he shall rein my hot breathed wenches	U
To let you grind the edges off their teeth	K
	-
	-
Gormflaith shaking her head sadly	F
	-
Life holds no more than this for me this is my hour	S
When she is dead I know you'll buy another Queen	F
Giving a county for her gaining a duchy with her	S
And put me to wet nursing leashing me with the thralls	U
It will not be unbearable I've had your love	Z2
Master and friend grant then this hour to me	F
Never again maybe can we two sit	F
At love together unwatched unknown of all	F
In the Queen's chamber near the Queen's crown	F
And with no conscious Queen to hold it from us	U
Now let me wear the Queen's true crown on me	F
And snatch a breathless knowledge of the feeling	Y
Of what it would have been to sit by you	F
Always and closely equal and exalted	F
To be my light when life is dark again	F
	-
	-
Lear	E
	-
Girl by the black stone god I did not think	T
You had the nature of a chambermaid	F
Who pries and fumbles in her lady's clothes	U
With her red hands or on her soily neck	Z
Stealthily hangs her lady's jewels or pearls	U
You shall be tiring maid to the next queen	F
And try her crown on every day o' your life	G
In secrecy if that is your desire	S
If you would be a queen cleanse yourself quickly	F
Of menial fingering and servile thought	F
	-
	-
Gormflaith	K
	-
You need not crown me Let me put it on	F
As briefly as a gleam of Winter sun	F
I will not even warm it with my hair	S2
	-
	-
Lear	E
	-
You cannot have the nature of a queen	F
If you believe that there are things above you	F
Crowns make no queens queens are the cause of crowns	U
	-
	-
Gormflaith slipping from his knee	F
	-
Then I will take one Look	Y2
	-
	-
She tip toes lightly round the front of the bed to where the crown hangs on the wall	F
	-
	-
Lear	E
	-
Come here mad thing come back	H3
Your shadow will wake the Queen	F
	-
	-
Gormflaith	K
	-
Hush hush That angry voice	U
Will surely wake the Queen	F
	-
	-
She lifts the crown from the peg and returns with it	F
	-
	-
Lear	E
	-
Go back bear back the crown	F
Hang up the crown again	F
We are not helpless serfs	U
To think things are forbidden	F
And steal them for our joy	I3
	-
	-
Gormflaith	K
	-
Hush hush It is too late	F
I dare not go again	F
	-
	-
Lear	E
	-
Put down the crown your hands are base hands yet	F
Give it to me it issues from my hands	U
	-
	-
Gormflaith seating herself on his knee again and crowning herself	V2
	-
Let anger keep your eyes steady and bright	F
To be my guiding mirror do not move	J3
You have received two queens within your eyes	U
	-
	-
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	U
	-
	-
Lear continuing meanwhile	F
	-
Doff it GORMFLAITH kisses him	R2
Enough Kiss Unless you do	F
Kiss my will Kiss	U
I shall Kiss I shall Kiss I'll have you	F
Kiss sent Kiss to Kiss	U
	-
	-
Gormflaith	K
	-
Hush	O2
	-
	-
Lear	E
	-
Come to the garden you shall hear me there	S2
	-
	-
Gormflaith	K
	-
I dare not leave the Queen Yes yes I come	H2
	-
	-
Lear	E
	-
No you are better here the guard would see you	F
	-
	-
Gormflaith	K
	-
Not when we reach the pathway near the apple yard	F
	-
	-
They rise	U
	-
	-
Lear	E
	-
Girl you are changed you yield more beauty so	U
	-
	-
They go out hand in hand by the doorway at the back As they pass the crumpled letter GORMFLAITH drops her handkerchief on it then picks up handkerchief and letter together and thrusts them into her bosom as she passes out	F
	-
	-
Hygd fingering back the bed curtain again	F
	-
How have they vanished What are they doing now	F
	-
	-
Gormflaith singing outside	F
	-
If you have a mind to kiss me	F
You shall kiss me in the dark	K3
Yet rehearse or you might miss me	F
Make my mouth your noontide mark	K3
See I prim and pout it so	U
Now take aim and No no no	U
Shut your eyes or you'll not learn	F
Where the darkness soon shall hide me	F
If you will not then in turn	F
I'll shut mine Come have you spied me	F
	-
	-
GORMFLAITH'S voice grows fainter as the song closes	U
	-
	-
Hygd	F
	-
Does he remember love ways used with me	F
Shall I never know Is it too near	E
I'll watch him at his wooing once again	F
Though I peer up at him across my grave sill	F
	-
	-
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	F
	-
Limbs will you die It is not yet the time	L3
I know more discipline I'll make you go	U
	-
	-
She fumbles along the bed to the head then clinging against the wall drags herself toward the back of the room	I
	-
	-
It is too far I cannot see the wall	F
I will go ten more steps only ten more	H
One Two Three Four Five	J
Six Seven Eight Nine Ten	F
Sundown is soon to day it is cold and dark	K3
Now ten steps more and much will have been done	F
One Two Three Four Ten	F
Eleven Twelve Sixteen Nineteen Twenty	F
Twenty one Twenty three Twenty eight Thirty Thirty one	F
At last the turn Thirty six Thirty nine Forty	F
Now only once again Two Three	F
What do the voices say I hear too many	F
The door but here there is no garden Ah	M3
	-
	-
She holds herself up an instant by the door curtains then she reels and falls her body in the room her head and shoulders beyond the curtains	U
	-
GONERIL enters by the door beyond the bed carrying the filled cup carefully in both hands	U
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
Where are you What have you done Speak to me	F
	-
	-
Turning and seeing HYGD she lets the cup fall and leaps to the open door by the bed	F
	-
Merryn hither hither Mother O mother	S
	-
	-
She goes to HYGD MERRYN enters	U
	-
	-
Merryn	F
	-
Princess what has she done Who has left her	S
She must have been alone	F
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
Where is Gormflaith	K
	-
	-
Merryn	F
	-
Mercy o' mercies everybody asks me	F
For Gormflaith then for Gormflaith then for Gormflaith	K
And I ask everybody else for her	S
But she is nowhere and the King will foam	N3
Send me no more I am old with running about	F
After a bodiless name	I2
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
She has been here	J2
And she has left the Queen This is her deed	F
	-
	-
Merryn	F
	-
Ah cruel cruel The shame the pity	F
	-
Goneril	F
	-
Lift	F
	-
	-
Together they raise HYGD and carry her to bed	F
	-
	-
She breathes but something flitters under her flesh	B2
Wynoc the leech must help us now Go run	F
Seek him and come back quickly and do not dare	S2
To come without him	R2
	-
	-
Merryn	F
	-
It is useless lady	F
There's fever at the cowherd's in the marsh	X2
And Wynoc broods above it twice a day	F
And I have lately seen him hobble thither	S2
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
I never heard such scornful wickedness	U
As that a king's physician so should choose	U
To watch and even heal base men and poor	S2
And more than all when there's a queen a dying	Y
	-
	-
Hygd recovering consciousness	U
	-
Whence come you dearest daughter What have I done	F
Are you a dream I thought I was alone	F
Have you been hunting on the Windy Height	F
Your hands are not thus gentle after hunting	Y
Or have I heard you singing through my sleep	W
Stay with me now I have had piercing thoughts	U
Of what the ways of life will do to you	F
To mould and maim you and I have a power	S2
To bring these to expression that I knew not	F
Why do you wear my crown Why do you wear	S2
My crown I say Why do you wear my crown	F
I am falling falling Lift me hold me up	M2
	-
	-
GONERIL climbs on the bed and supports HYGD against her shoulder	S2
	-
	-
It is the bed that breaks for still I sink	T
Grip harder I am slipping	Y
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
Woman help	F2
	-
	-
MERRYN hurries round to the front of the bed and supports HYGD on her other side HYGD points at the far corner of the room	I
	-
	-
Hygd	F
	-
Why is the King's mother standing there	S2
She should not wear her crown before me now	F
Send her away she had a savage mind	F
Will you not hang a shawl across the corner	S2
So that she cannot stare at me again	F
	-
	-
With a rending sob she buries her face in GONERIL'S bosom	H2
	-
Ah she is coming Do not let her touch me	F
Brave splendid daughter how easily you save me	F
But soon will Gormflaith come she stays for ever	S2
O will she bring my crown to me once more	S2
Yes Gormflaith yes Daughter pay Gormflaith well	F
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
Gormflaith has left you lonely	F
'Tis Gormflaith who shall pay	F
	-
	-
Hygd	F
	-
No Gormflaith Gormflaith Not my loneliness	U
Everything Pay Gormflaith	K
	-
	-
Her head falls back over GONERIL'S shoulder and she dies	U
	-
	-
Goneril laying Hygd down in bed again	F
	-
Send horsemen to the marshes for the leech	O3
And let them bind him on a horse's back	H3
And bring him swiftlier than an old man rides	U
	-
	-
Merryn	F
	-
This is no leech's work she's a dead woman	F
I'd best be finding if the wisdom women	F
Have come from Brita's child bed to their drinking	Y
By the cook's fire for soon she'll be past handling	Y
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
This is not death death could not be like this	U
She is quite warm though nothing moves in her	S2
I did not know death could come all at once	U
If life is so ill seated no one is safe	P3
Cannot we leave her like herself awhile	F
Wait awhile Merryn No no no not yet	F
	-
	-
Merryn	F
	-
Child she is gone and will not come again	F
However we cover our faces and pretend	F
She will be there if we uncover them	A
I must be hasty or she'll be as stiff	Q3
As a straw mattress is	U
	-
	-
She hurries out by the door near the bed	F
	-
	-
Goneril throwing the whole length of her body along Hygd's body and embracing it	F
	-
Come back come back the things I have not done	F
Beat in upon my brain from every side	F
I know not where to put myself to bear them	A
If I could have you now I could act well	F
My inward life deeds that you have not known	F
I burn to tell you in a sudden dread	F
That now your ghost discovers them in me	F
Hearken mother between us there's a bond	F
Of flesh and essence closer than love can cause	U
It cannot be unknit so soon as this	U
And you must know my touch	C2
And you shall yield a sign	F
Feel feel this urging throb I call to you	F
	-
	-
GORMFLAITH still crowned enters by the garden doorway	F
	-
Gormflaith	K
	-
Come back Help me and shield me	F
	-
	-
She disappears through the curtains GONERIL has sprung to her feet at the first sound of GORMFLAITH'S voice	U
	-
LEAR enters through the garden doorway leading GORMFLAITH by the hand	F
	-
	-
Lear What is to do	F
	-
	-
Goneril advancing to meet them with a deep obeisance	U
	-
O Sir the Queen is dead long live the Queen	F
You have been ready with the coronation	F
	-
	-
Lear	S2
	-
What do you mean Young madam will you mock	R3
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
But is not she your choice	U
The old Queen thought so for I found her here	S2
Lipping the prints of her supplanter's feet	F
Prostrate in homage on her face silent	F
I tremble within to have seen her fallen down	F
I must be pardoned if I scorn your ways	U
You cannot know this feeling that I know	F
You are not of her kin or house but I	F
Share blood with her and though she grew too worn	F
To be your Queen she was my mother Sir	S2
	-
	-
Gormflaith	K
	-
The Queen has seen me	F
	-
	-
Lear	S2
	-
She is safe in bed	F
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
Do not speak low your voice sounds guilty so	F
And there is no more need she will not wake	S3
	-
	-
Lear	S2
	-
She cannot sleep for ever When she wakes	U
I will announce my purpose in the need	F
Of Britain for a prince to follow me	F
And tell her that she is to be deposed	F
What have you done She is not breathing now	F
She breathed here lately Is she truly dead	F
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
Your graceful consort steals from us too soon	F
Will you not tell her that she should remain	F
If she can trust the faith you keep with a queen	F
	-
	-
She steps to GORMFLAITH who is sidling toward the garden door way and taking her hand leads her to the foot of the bed	F
	-
	-
Lady why will you go The King intends	U
That you shall soon be royal and thereby	F
Admitted to our breed then stay with us	U
In this domestic privacy to mourn	F
The grief here fallen on our family	F
Kneel now I yield the eldest daughter's place	U
Why do you fumble in your bosom so	F
Put your cold hands together close your eyes	U
In inward isolation to assemble	F
Your memories of the dead your prayers for her	S2
	-
	-
She turns to LEAR who has approached the bed and drawn back the curtain	F
	-
	-
What utterance of doom would the king use	U
Upon a watchman in the castle garth	K
Who left his gate and let an enemy in	F
The watcher by the Queen thus left her station	F
The sick bruised Queen is dead of that neglect	F
And what should be the doom on a seducer	S2
Who drew that sentinel from his fixt watch	V
	-
	-
Lear	S2
	-
She had long been dying and she would have died	F
Had all her dutiful daughters tended her bed	F
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
Yes she had long been dying in her heart	F
She lived to see you give her crown away	F
She died to see you fondle a menial	F
These blows you dealt now but what elder wounds	U
Received them to such purpose suddenly	F
What had you caused her to remember most	F
What things would she be like to babble over	S2
In the wild helpless hour when fitful life	G
No more can choose what thoughts it shall encourage	T3
In the tost mind She has suffered you twice over	S2
Your animal thoughts and hungry powers this day	F
Until I knew you unkingly and untrue	F
	-
	-
Lear	S2
	-
Punishment once taught you daughterly silence	U
It shall be tried again What has she said	F
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
You cannot touch me now I know your nature	S2
Your force upon my mind was only terrible	F
When I believed you a cruel flawless man	F
Ruler of lands and dreaded judge of men	F
Now you have done a murder with your mind	F
Can you see any murderer put to death	K
Can you	F
	-
	-
Lear	S2
	-
What has she said	F
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
Continue in your joy of punishing evil	F
Your passion of just revenge upon wrong doers	U
Unkingly and untrue	F
	-
	-
Lear	S2
	-
Enough what do you know	F
	-
Goneril	F
	-
That which could add a further agony	F
To the last agony the daily poison	F
Of her late withering life but never word	F
Of fairer hours or any lost delight	F
Have you no memory either of her youth	K
While she was still to use spoil forsake	S3
That maims your new contentment with a longing	Y
For what is gone and will not come again	F
	-
	-
Lear	S2
	-
I did not know that she could die to day	F
She had a bloodless beauty that cheated me	F
She was not born for wedlock She shut me out	F
She is no colder now I'll hear no more	S2
You shall be answered afterward for this	U
Put something over her get her buried	F
I will not look on her again	F
	-
	-
He breaks from GONERIL and flings abruptly out by the door near the bed	F
	-
	-
Gormflaith	K
	-
My king you leave me	F
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
Soon we follow him	R2
But ah poor fragile beauty you cannot rise	U
While this grave burden weights your drooping head	F
	-
	-
Laying her hand caressingly on GORMFLAITH'S neck she gradually forces her head farther and farther down	F
	-
	-
You were not nurtured to sustain a crown	F
Your unanointed parents could not breed	F
The spirit that ten hundred years must ripen	F
Lo how you sink and fail	F
	-
	-
Gormflaith	K
	-
You had best take care	S2
For where my neck has bruises yours shall have wounds	U
The King knows of your wolfish snapping at me	F
He will protect me	F
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
Ay if he is in time	L3
	-
	-
Gormflaith taking off the crown and holding it up blindly toward Goneril with one hand	F
	-
Take it and let me go	F
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
Nay not to me	F
You are the Queen's to serve her even in death	K
Yield her her own Approach her do not fear	S2
She will not chide you or forgive you now	F
Go on your knees the crown still holds you down	F
	-
	-
GORMFLAITH stumbles forward on her knees and lays the crown on the bed then crouches motionlessly against the bedside	F
	-
	-
Goneril taking the crown and putting it on the dead Queen's head	F
	-
Mother and Queen to you this holiest circlet	F
Returns by you renews its purpose and pride	F
Though it is sullied with a menial warmth	K
Your august coldness shall rehallow it	F
And when the young lewd blood that lent it heat	F
Is also cooler we can well forget	F
	-
	-
She steps to GORMFLAITH	K
	-
	-
Rise Come for here there is no more to do	F
And let us seek your chamber if you will	F
There to confer in greater privacy	F
For we have now interment to prepare	S2
	-
	-
She leads GORMFLAITH to the door near the bed	F
	-
	-
You must walk first you are still the Queen elect	F
	-
	-
When GORMFLAITH has passed before her GONERIL unsheathes her hunting knife	G
	-
	-
Gormflaith turning in the doorway	F
	-
What will you do	F
	-
	-
Goneril thrusting her forward with the haft of the knife	G
	-
On On On Go in	F
	-
	-
She follows GORMFLAITH out After a moment's interval two elderly women one a little younger than the other enter by the same door they wear black hoods and shapeless black gowns with large sleeves that flap like the wings of ungainly birds between them they carry a heavy cauldron of hot water	S2
	-
	-
The Younger Woman	F
	-
We were listening We were listening	Y
	-
	-
The Elder Woman	F
	-
We were both listening	Y
	-
	-
The Younger Woman	F
	-
Did she struggle	F
	-
	-
The Elder Woman	F
	-
She could not struggle long	U3
	-
	-
They set down the cauldron at the foot of the bed	F
	-
	-
The Elder Woman curtseying to the Queen's body	F
	-
Saving your presence Madam we are come	H2
To make you sweeter than you'll be hereafter	S2
And then be done with you	F
	-
	-
The Younger Woman curtseying in turn	F
	-
Three days together my Lady y'have had me ducked	F
For easing a foolish maid at the wrong time	L3
But now your breath is stopped and you are colder	S2
And you shall be as wet as a drowned rat	F
Ere I have done with you	F
	-
	-
The Elder Woman fumbling in the folds of the robe that hangs on the wall	F
	-
Her pocket is empty Merryn has been here first	F
Hearken and then begin	F
You have not touched a royal corpse before	S2
But I have stretched a king and an old queen	F
A king's aunt and a king's brother too	F
Without much boasting of a still born princess	U
So that I know as a priest knows his prayers	U
All that is written in the chamberlain's book	Y2
About the handling of exalted corpses	U
Stripping them and trussing them for the grave	L2
And there it says that the chief corpse washer	S2
Shall take for her own use by sacred right	F
The coverlid the upper sheet the mattress	U
Of any bed in which a queen has died	F
And the last robe of state the body wore	S2
While humbler helpers may divide among them	A
The under sheet the pillow and the bed gown	F
Stript from the cooling queen	F
Be thankful then and praise me every day	F
That I have brought no other women with me	F
To spoil you of your share	S2
	-
	-
The Younger Woman	F
	-
Ah you have always been a friend to me	F
Many's the time I have said I did not know	F
How I could even have lived but for your kindness	U
	-
	-
The ELDER WOMAN draws down the bedclothes from the Queen's body loosens them from the bed and throws them on the floor	S2
	-
	-
The Elder Woman	F
	-
Pull her feet straight is your mind wandering	Y
	-
	-
She commences to fold the bedclothes singing as she moves about	F
	-
	-
A louse crept out of my lady's shift	F
Ahumm Ahumm Ahee	L
Crying Oi Oi We are turned adrift	F
The lady's bosom is cold and stiffed	F
And her arm pit's cold for me	F
	-
	-
While the ELDER WOMAN sings the YOUNGER WOMAN straightens the Queen's feet and ties them together draws the pillow from under her head gathers her hair in one hand and knots it roughly then she loosens her nightgown revealing a jewel hung on a cord round the Queen's neck	Z
	-
	-
The Elder Woman running to the vacant side of the bed	F
	-
What have you there Give it to me	F
	-
	-
The Younger Woman	F
	-
It is mine	F
I found it	F
	-
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The Elder Woman	F
	-
Leave it	F
	-
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The Younger Woman	F
	-
Let go	F
	-
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The Elder Woman	F
	-
Leave it I say	F
Will you not Will you not An eye for a jewel then	F
	-
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She attacks the face of the YOUNGER WOMAN with her disengaged hand	F
	-
	-
The Younger Woman starting back	H3
	-
Oh	F
	-
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The ELDER WOMAN breaks the cord and thrusts the jewel into her pocket	F
	-
	-
The Younger Woman	F
	-
Aie Aie Aie Old thief You are always thieving	Y
You stole a necklace on your wedding day	F
You could not bear a child you stole your daughter	S2
You stole a shroud the morn your husband died	F
Last week you stole the Princess Regan's comb	N3
	-
	-
She stumbles into the chair by the bed and throwing her loose sleeves over her head rocks herself and moans	U
	-
	-
The Elder Woman resuming her clothes folding and her song	U3
	-
The lady's linen's no longer neat	F
Ahumm Ahumm Ahee	L
Her savour is neither warm nor sweet	F
It's close for two in a winding sheet	F
And lice are too good for worms to eat	F
So here's no place for me	F
	-
	-
GONERIL enters by the door near the bed her knife and the hand that holds it are bloody She pauses a moment irresolutely	F
	-
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The Elder Woman	F
	-
Still work for old Hrogneda little Princess	U
	-
	-
GONERIL goes straight to the cauldron passing the women as if they were not there she kneels and washes her knife and her hand in it The women retire to the back of the chamber	S2
	-
	-
Goneril speaking to herself	V2
	-
The way is easy and it is to be used	F
How could this need have been conceived slowly	F
In a keen mind it should have leapt and burnt	F
What I have done would have been better done	F
When my sad mother lived and could feel joy	I3
This striking without thought is better than hunting	Y
She showed more terror than an animal	F
She was more shiftless	U
A little blood is lightly washed away	F
A common stain that need not be remembered	F
And a hot spasm of rightness quickly born	F
Can guide me to kill justly and shall guide	F
	-
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LEAR enters by the door near the bed	F
	-
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Lear	S2
	-
Goneril Gormflaith Gormflaith Have you seen Gormflaith	K
	-
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Goneril	F
	-
I led her to her chamber lately Sir	S2
	-
	-
Lear	S2
	-
Ay she is in her chamber She is there	S2
	-
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Goneril	F
	-
Have you been there already Could you not wait	F
	-
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Lear	S2
	-
Daughter she is bleeding she is slain	F
	-
	-
Goneril rising from the cauldron with dripping hands	U
	-
Yes she is slain I did it with a knife	G
And in this water is dissolved her blood	F
	-
	-
Raising her arms and sprinkling the Queen's body	F
	-
	-
That now I scatter on the Queen of death	K
For signal to her spirit that I can slake	Y
Her long corrosion of misery with such balm	V3
Blood for weeping terror for woe death for death	K
A broken body for a broken heart	F
What will you say against me and my deed	F
	-
	-
Lear	S2
	-
That now you cannot save yourself from me	F
While your blind virgin power still stood apart	F
In an unused unviolated life	G
You judged me in my weakness and because	U
I felt you unflawed I could not answer you	F
But you have mingled in mortality	F
And violently begun the common life	G
By fault against your fellows and the state	F
The state of Britain that inheres in me	F
Not touched by my humanity or sin	F
Passions or privy acts shall be as hard	F
And savage to you as to a murderess	U
	-
	-
Goneril taking a letter from her girdle	F
	-
I found a warrant in her favoured bosom King	Y
She wore this on her heart when you were crowning her	S2
	-
	-
Lear	S2
	-
But this is not my hand	F
	-
	-
Looking about him on the floor	S2
	-
	-
Where is the other letter	S2
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
Is there another letter What should it say	U
	-
	-
Lear	S2
	-
There is no other letter if you have none	F
Reading	Y
Open your window when the moon is dead	F
And I will come again	F
The men say everywhere that you are faithless	U
And your eyes shifty eyes Ah but I love you Gormflaith	K
This is not hers she'd not receive such words	U
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
Her name stands twice therein her perfume fills it	F
My knife went through it ere I found it on her	S2
	-
	-
Lear	S2
	-
The filth is suitably dead You are my true daughter	S2
	-
	-
Goneril	F
	-
I do not understand how men can govern	F
Use craft and exercise the duty of cunning	Y
Anticipate treason treachery meet with treachery	F
And yet believe a woman because she looks	U
Straight in their eyes with mournful trustful gaze	U
And lisps like innocence all gentleness	U
Your Gormflaith could not answer a woman's eyes	U
I did not need to read her in a letter	S2
I am not woman yet but I can feel	F
What untruths are instinctive in my kind	F
And how some men desire deceit from us	U
Come let these washers do what they must do	F
Or shall your Queen be wrapped and coffined awry	F
	-
	-
She goes out by the garden doorway	U
	-
	-
Lear	S2
	-
I thought she had been broken long ago	Y
She must be wedded and broken I cannot do it	F
	-
	-
He follows GONERIL out The two women return to the bedside	F
	-
	-
The Elder Woman	F
	-
Poor masterful King he is no easier	S2
Although his tearful wife is gone at last	F
A wilful girl shall prick and thwart him now	F
Old gossip we must hasten the Queen is setting	Y
Lend me a pair of pennies to weight her eyes	U
	-
	-
The Younger Woman	F
	-
Find your own pennies then you can steal them safely	F
	-
	-
The Elder Woman	F
	-
Praise you the gods of Britain as I do praise them	A
That I have been sweet natured from my birth	K
And that I lack your unforgiving mind	F
Friend of the worms help me to lift her clear	S2
And draw away the under sheet for you	F
Then go and spread the shroud by the hall fire	S2
I never could put damp linen on a corpse	U
	-
	-
She sings	U
	-
	-
The louse made off unhappy and wet	F
Ahumm Ahumm Ahee	L
He's looking for us the little pet	F
So haste for her chin's to tie up yet	F
And let us be gone with what we can get	F
Her ring for thee her gown for Bet	F
Her pocket turned out for me	F
	-
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	-
CURTAIN	F
	-
	-
	-
Footnote Copyright by Gordon Bottomley in the United States of America	Y

Gordon Bottomley

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