Tuesday, 1 May 2012

Added Scene to King Lear


*After France and Cordelia's wedding, King Lear's banishment still brings unease to the new bride.*

France: How now Cordelia?
Wither comes this wearied look which creeps
To invade the fairness of your face?
Our nuptial duties approach with promise,
Yet worry attacks the vulnerable
Lines of profile; chin soft, and curving lips
Should not falter at lover's gentle kiss
And new husband's embrace that protects thee.

Cordelia: Leave me! Thrust not into my thoughts!

France: Come, now.

Cordelia: His glowering eyes still pierce my mind since
His cruel utterance of my banishment.
Why must the truth of a love that loves true
Meet undue punishment and withdrawal?
No fatherly consent to our shared vows
Exchanged with pious honesty, I do,
Was awarded to dutiful daughter,
Now made a fortunate wife.

France: The King knows not what he has cast that I reel.

Cordelia: If a squeeze on my hand predicted the rest
Hold it until the circulation cuts
So the racing pulse does not constrict.
Amputate thoughts so dreams severe and limp
And tell promises that delude ever-after.
Whisper fairytales - for only a phase
Is this life - short episodes that peter out.
When the sun's sleepy rays emerge over
The landscape of my mind, which yawning
Awakes and stretches to accept the means,
I shall enter into fair embrace
Of a longtime ago, far, far away.

France: What of our marriage? A new dawn that rises
Upon sun's bitter set of previous night,
Of past darkness effaced, by shared benison.

Cordelia: How can I love thee in earnest, love thee true
When wedding bells smashed by dissonance?

France: Let not angry voice's echoes pursue
And overshadow marriage's balance.
What caught mine eye was your feminine grace
Like a glimmer in sand stretching beyond,
Out plucked the diamond, with glorious face.

Cordelia: And your gaping fortune vast, was pawned.
Severed by family, absence of mere name.
To such strength in a man of regal poise
I present myself dressed merely in shame.

France: Bejewelled in honour, for honest rejoice.

Cordelia: Yet diamonds are cold, no heart beats within.

France: Have heart, my darling, let our era begin.

Exeunt.

Dec. 4, 2010

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