Your Majesty?
[They bow formally to one another, then remain silent a little.]
Queen
O, what is the sense of trying to carry a meeting like this off? I have been too astonished lately to hold on to my savoir faire. Here are my explosions in a nutshell. The announcement that the clown Gwymplane is the Prince of Vaucluse I am satisfied is authentic. He is in consequence your fiancé.
Duchess [losing her wits in a temper]
You must be mad to suppose I should really marry with a mountebank, a deformity, no matter what he has been born.
Queen
Evidently you forget the position you enjoy entails implicit obedience.
[The Duchess is about to break out.]
Please don't be banal. I couldn't bear to hear you say that your life was slavery. Your life is merely idiotic. Slaves were sturdy, magnificent people who understood massage, and you look as if a powder puff could blast you off the earth.