Georgian Poetry 1913-15 Part 8

Merryn:

Mercy o' mercies, everybody asks me For Gormflaith, then for Gormflaith, then for Gormflaith, And I ask everybody else for her; But she is nowhere, and the King will foam.

Send me no more; I am old with running about After a bodiless name.

Goneril:

She has been here, And she has left the Queen. This is her deed.

Merryn:

Ah, cruel, cruel! The shame, the pity--

Goneril:

Lift.

[Together they raise HYGD, and carry her to bed.]

She breathes, but something flitters under her flesh: Wynoc the leech must help us now. Go, run, Seek him, and come back quickly, and do not dare To come without him.

Merryn:

It is useless, lady: There's fever at the cowherd's in the marsh, And Wynoc broods above it twice a day, And I have lately seen him hobble thither.

Goneril:

I never heard such scornful wickedness As that a king's physician so should choose To watch and even heal base men and poor-- And, more than all, when there's a queen a-dying ...

Hygd (recovering consciousness):

Whence come you, dearest daughter? What have I done?

Are you a dream? I thought I was alone.

Have you been hunting on the Windy Height?

Your hands are not thus gentle after hunting.

Or have I heard you singing through my sleep?

Stay with me now: I have had piercing thoughts Of what the ways of life will do to you To mould and maim you, and I have a power To bring these to expression that I knew not.

Why do you wear my crown? Why do you wear My crown I say? Why do you wear my crown?

I am falling, falling! Lift me: hold me up.

[GONERIL climbs on the bed and supports HYGD against her shoulder.]

It is the bed that breaks, for still I sink.

Grip harder: I am slipping!

Goneril:

Woman, help!

[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.]

Hygd:

Why is the King's mother standing there?

She should not wear her crown before me now.

Send her away, she had a savage mind.

Will you not hang a shawl across the corner So that she cannot stare at me again?

[With a rending sob she buries her face in GONERIL'S bosom.]

Ah, she is coming! Do not let her touch me!

Brave splendid daughter, how easily you save me: But soon will Gormflaith come, she stays for ever.

O, will she bring my crown to me once more?

Yes, Gormflaith, yes ... Daughter, pay Gormflaith well.

Goneril:

Gormflaith has left you lonely: 'Tis Gormflaith who shall pay.

Hygd:

No, Gormflaith; Gormflaith ... Not my loneliness ...

Everything ... Pay Gormflaith ...

[Her head falls back over GONERIL'S shoulder and she dies.]

Goneril (laying Hygd down in bed again):

Send hors.e.m.e.n to the marshes for the leech, And let them bind him on a horse's back And bring him swiftlier than an old man rides.

Merryn: