XI
The prelude to the third act starts with a tune, in the folk-song manner, sung by the wood-winds:
As the curtain rises we find Ase, Aelfrida’s serving maid, singing while she spins in the hall of Ordgar’s house, where Aethelwold is living with his bride. Then comes a tense scene between Aelfrida and Aethelwold, for she is fretted by her preoccupation with the cares of the household, and not wholly content with a husband whose unconfessed treachery must have caused him many sleepless nights. Aethelwold accordingly plans that they shall leave Devon immediately, and go to Ghent in Flanders where Aelfrida would henceforth go “in sighing silk and gossamer and hooded in beaver-fell.” As they sing farewell to Devon the orchestra commences a theme which is heard at different times throughout the act, a melody of great beauty and pathos:
But it is too late, for the King is at that moment at the gates, come on a friendly visit. Aethelwold confesses his deception to his wife:
“Yea, my child, ’tis true enough.
I lied to Eadgar,
Saying thou were little fair.
Oh, the good smack of truth on the tongue again,