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 horsemen 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.
This is no leech's work: she 's a dead woman.
I'd best be finding if the wisdom-women
Have come from Brita's child-bed to their drinking
By the cook's fire, for soon she'll be past handling.
Goneril.
This is not death: death could not be like this.
She is quite warm—though nothing moves in her.
I did not know death could come all at once:
If life is so ill-seated no one is safe.
Cannot we leave her like herself awhile?
Wait awhile, Merryn.... No, no, no; not yet!
Merryn.
Child, she is gone and will not come again
However we cover our faces and pretend
She will be there if we uncover them.
I must be hasty, or she'll be as stiff
As a straw mattress is.
She hurries out by the door near the bed.
Goneril, throwing the whole length of her body along Hygd's body, and embracing it.