 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ACT I
Dialogue following No. 3
Enter Hildebrand.
| Hilarion. | Well, father, is there news for me at last? | |
| Hildebrand. | King Gama is in sight, but much I fear With no Princess! |
|
| Hilarion. | Alas, my liege, I've heard, | |
| That Princess Ida has forsworn the world, And, with a band of women, shut herself Within a lonely country house, and there Devotes herself to stern philosophies! |
||
| Hildebrand. | Then I should say the loss of such a wife Is one to which a reasonable man Would easily be reconciled. |
|
| Hilarion. | Oh, no! | |
| Or I am not a reasonable man. She is my wife — has been for twenty years! |
||
| (Holding glass) I think I see her now. | ||
 |
| Hilarion (John Dudley) discusses the arrival of King Gama with King Hildebrand (Sydney Granville), 1939 |
| Hildebrand. | Ha! Let me look! | |
| Hilarion. | In my mind's eye, I mean — a blushing bride All bib and tucker, frill and furbelow! How exquisite she looked as she was borne, Recumbent, in her foster-mother's arms! How the bride wept — nor would be comforted Until the hireling mother-for-the-nonce Administered refreshment in the vestry. And I remember feeling much annoyed That she should weep at marrying with me. But then I thought, "These brides are all alike. You cry at marrying me? How much more cause You'd have to cry if it were broken off!" These were my thoughts; I kept them to myself, For at that age I had not learnt to speak. |
|
Exeunt Hildebrand and Hilarion.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| | Web Opera
Page modified 21 August 2019