Gordon Bottomley

By Brooke, Rupert

Description
Poetry

Excerpt
Excerpt: King Lear's Wife // To T. S. M. // Dramatis Personae // Lear, King of Britain. // Hygd, his Queen. // Goneril, daughter to King Lear. // Cordeil, daughter to King Lear. // Gormflaith, waiting-woman to Queen Hygd. // Merryn, waiting-woman to Queen Hygd. // A Physician. // Two Elderly Women // King Lear's Wife. // 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. // 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 waitingwoman, // Merryn, middle-aged and hardfeatured, // sits watching her in a chair on the // farther side of the bed. The light of early morning // fills the room. // Merryn // Many, many must die who long to love, // Yet this one cannot die who longs to die: // Even her sleep, come now at last, thwarts death, // Although sleep lures us all half way to death.... // I could not sit beside her every night // If I believed that I might suffer so: // I am sure I am not made to be diseased...