Hygd (recovering consciousness):
Whence come you, dearest daughter? What have I done?
Are you a dream? I thought I was alone.
Have you been hunting on the Windy Height?
Your hands are not thus gentle after hunting.
Or have I heard you singing through my sleep?
Stay with me now: I have had piercing thoughts
Of what the ways of life will do to you
To mould and maim you, and I have a power
To bring these to expression that I knew not.
Why do you wear my crown? Why do you wear
My crown I say? Why do you wear my crown?
I am falling, falling! Lift me: hold me up.
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.