Come! I command you to obey me. Pray take off your mask! You can have no idea how I hate mentioning a desire twice.
[Gwymplane removes his mask. The Duchess looks at him intently and sighs.]
Duchess
It must be wonderful to be you.
[She motions him to a black cushion with golden tassels at the foot of her couch.]
Gwymplane
[Who has by this time mastered himself.]
To be me, Madame? [bitterly] But of course your life is a revel of laughter; so why should not your thoughts be forever jesting through your words?
Duchess
I am not jesting.