King: (Sitting down on window seat while Servant
arranges cushions about him.) Keep your business
a while. It's a poor thing to be going through
business the very minute the dinner is ended.
Taig: I wouldn't but that it is pressing.
King: Go now to the Queen, in her parlour,
and be chatting and whistling to the birds. I give
you my word since I rose up from the table I am
going here and there, up and down, craving and
striving to find a place where I'll get leave to lay
my head on the cushions for one little minute.
(Taig goes reluctantly.)
Dall Glic: (Taking cushions from servants.) Let
you go now and leave the King to his rest.
(They go out.)
King: I don't know in the world why anyone
would consent to be a king, and never to be left
to himself, but to be worried and wearied and
interfered with from dark to daybreak and from
morning to the fall of night.
Dall Glic: I will be going out now. I have
but one word only to say....
King: Let it be a short word! I would be
better pleased to hear the sound of breezes in
the sycamores, and the humming of bees in the
hive and the crooning and sleepy sounds of the
sea!
Dall Glic: There is one thing only could cause
me to annoy you.