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Ⓗ 2018 Siôn Eirian
Mae angen caniatâd cyn perfformio neu recordio unrhyw ran o’r ddrama.

Act 1

ACT ONE

The royal chamber in the tower.
It is past midnight.

Siwan
The music's over now.
There – the last lantern's been put out.

Alis
The big lantern up there's still going strong.

Siwan
What a moon. Such a light night.
We hardly need these candles …
What time is it Alis?

Alis
I heard the watch calling midnight as I came here.
Shall I take the crown, ma dame?

Siwan
Yes. Put it away in the chest.

Alis
Wasn't the dancing on the green a delight?
You could see the knights from France were enjoying it all so much …

Siwan
Now this gown. I can't wait to be free of it, Alis.

Alis
Yes ma dame.
I heard one of the Frenchmen say how strange
It was to see the courtly dances of Aquitaine
Here on a castle green in North Wales.
They didn't realise how you'd brought
The graces and manners of Toulouse
With you to the wilds of Wales.

Siwan
They shouldn't be surprised at that.
Half the English court are Frenchmen.
The new Welsh nobles have French blood.
And tonight we're celebrating a pact
Between France and Gwilym's Brecon
Which will be sealed when his daughter marries my son.
The French knights knew the significance
Of the contracts we made this evening.

Alis
Why didn't you dance, ma dame?

Siwan
With that heavy crown, weighing on me so?
That great silver gown billowing around me?
Even for the French dances I'd need far lighter
Dress than that.
My duty tonight was to take the throne
In my Prince's absence.

Alis
But no one can dance the French steps
As beautifully as you.
You'll have to lead the dancing
Come your son's wedding, just as you've done
When all your other children married.

Siwan
Yes. I'll dance at Dafydd's wedding.
A dance to celebrate his golden future.
I'll dance for Dafydd.

Alis
Shall I let down your hair now,
And comb it before you go to bed?

Siwan
Do that, Alis. The crown pressed into my head
And made my temples ache.
I'd like you to comb my hair.
I'll sit here for you.

Alis
(Sings.)
Le roi Marc était corracié
Vers Tristran, son neveu, irié;
Da se terre le congédia
Pour la reine qu'il ama.

Siwan
Not that song, Alis. Not tonight.

Alis
It's Marie de France, ma dame.
You taught me the words.

Siwan
As my mother taught them to me.
But Tristan and Isault is too sad a story for tonight.

Alis
She sings the kind of song I understand.
That moves me. Not like our bards.
Their poetry's too cold and too clever
For a country girl like me.
(Sings again.)
En sa contrée en est allé,
En Sud Galles oû il fut né …

Siwan
Let Tristan and Isault rest, Alis …
And finish my hair.

Alis
Was Tristan a Frenchman then?
How was he born in South Wales?
En Sud Galles oû il fut né.
Brecon's young lord, Gwilym Brewys, has French blood then?
When I was looking at him out there tonight I was thinking of Tristan.


Siwan gives Alis a resounding slap.

Alis
Oh … ma dame! What did I say?

Siwan
Have you finished with my hair girl?

Alis
Look in the mirror, ma dame.
You'll see two braids, just like Isault's …
My lip's bleeding where your ring caught me.

Siwan
The taste might teach that tongue of yours a lesson.
The wine I left outside, did you give it to the doorkeepers?

Alis
Didn't you see them as you came here?

Siwan
They were both sleeping soundly,
One on either side of the door.

Alis
The doorkeepers sleeping!
Shall I go wake them?

Siwan
No. Let them sleep.
Tomorrow's May Day.

Alis
It's already May Day.
And already the lads and girls
Are out there in the groves, dancing.
Hands held around the maypole
Then they'll be pairing off, the couples
Creeping away. I don't suppose
That many of them will reappear before dawn.
Oh, those country boys know how to have fun too
Ma dame.

Siwan
Have you … been with boys Alis?

Alis
Of course. The first time was when I was fifteen.
You've never been out under the maypole?

Siwan
I was a King's daughter. And at fifteen
A mother myself, to a little prince.
I gave my young womb to political imperative
Like every royal daughter.

Alis
The trees are so still now. I can't even
Hear the sounds of the sea. It's at its far ebb.
If I were a Princess, on a May Day eve like this
I'd put all my duties aside.

Siwan
You don't know what you're saying Alis.
Take your candle to your room, go to bed.
I won't sleep for a while yet.
I'll knock on the floor if I need you.

Alis
Good night then. God be with you ma dame.
(Alis exits.)

Siwan
(Sings.)
Pour la reine qu'il aima.


Gwilym appears.

Gwilym
My Lady …

Siwan
Gwilym!

Gwilym
Siwan – I've been waiting, outside the keep.
What made you detain her such a time?

Siwan
Today, at sunrise, Henry, King of England,
My brother, sails for France.

Gwilym
Yes? What of it?

Siwan
You're a hot blooded young man …

Gwilym
Twenty five, and a father to four daughters.

Siwan
I still see you as that brash young upstart
Captured, carried here wounded from battle
For us to subdue and to nurse …

Gwilym
Why tell me about your brother?
What if he is travelling to France?

Siwan
That's why I kept my maid here the while.

Gwilym
To keep me away?

Siwan
No. The implications, Gwilym. My significance.
I bind two kingdoms. A King of England
And a Prince of Gwynedd.
Your coming here now, is no trifling matter.
What if one of Gwynedd's Royal Council
Saw you crossing the green and entering this keep?
What if my Prince was to learn of this?
With my brother away in France
He'd have a free hand to wreak his vengeance
In whatever way he wanted. The implications
Gwilym.

Gwilym
No one saw me. Don't worry. And your guards
Were sleeping. Did you drug their wine?

Siwan
A prudent precaution, knowing how reckless you can be.

Gwilym
Don't forget – I'm almost one of the family here.
Your daughter's my step-mother
And my daughter will soon marry your Dafydd.
That gives me some right to come and go …

Siwan
Not in the dead of night.
Not in the royal bed, like this.

Gwilym
You want this marriage – your Dafydd
To my daughter – more than anything. I know.

Siwan
Yes. I want it. But it's the Prince's decision.
He's fifty-seven. He wants a grandson.
Allying with you and Brecon secures our borders,
And a child from that alliance would also secure
Llywelyn's bloodline.
Longevity runs in Llywelyn's family.
If our Dafydd and a son of his inherit that trait
This kingdom could be secure for another century.
One lesson that Llywelyn continually tries to teach me
Is that success is bred from patience.
Yet I find patience such an elusive virtue.

Gwilym
And what lessons have you taught him?

Siwan
You're married, a hearthful of daughters,
Don't you know that a wife has nothing
Worth teaching her husband?

Gwilym
I do know you say that mockingly.
I'll show you one wife - a Prince's wife
Who's consulted as a prime minister,
Who's the court's chief ambassador
And who walks the halls and makes heads turn
As if she were Helen of Troy … My lady?

Siwan
Perhaps that's a form of escape for me.
I inherited a passionate, restless nature,
From my father.
To keep myself sane I occupy my time, like a man,
With my husband's stratagems, his statesmanship.

Gwilym
Do you know what they say about you
Down in South Wales?
That Gwynedd, thanks to your influence,
Has become a French princedom.
All your children have been given away
To a French nobleman in marriage.
You've almost changed your Welsh Prince
Into an adopted Frenchman.

Siwan
The only thing that forges real change in a man
Is love. Are you telling me
That Llywelyn loves me as you do?

Gwilym
You're the first successful politician
That I've found to be intelligent and intuitive
Siwan.

Siwan
The unruliness of passion is anathema to statesmanship
Only once did I allow my heart
To rule my head in such matters.

Gwilym
And when was that, my lady?

Siwan
When I suggested the union
Of Gwynedd's heir
To Gwilym Brewys's daughter.
Of mine and yours.

Gwilym
An inspired suggestion.

Siwan
A desperately bad suggestions
If Dafydd doesn't sire a son.

Gwilym
You astonish me Siwan.

Siwan
Why?

Gwilym
You know why I came here to your court.

Siwan
To finalise the arrangements for that wedding.

Gwilym
And why do I want to see that wedding happen
As much as – if not more than – you do?

Siwan
Because you have no male successors.
Four girls won't secure the future of Brecon.
And we border on Brecon. Our northern princedom
Dwarfs your swathe of lands.
Just as to your south you're dwarfed
By Hubert de Burgh's South Wales territories.
Make an ally of us – and you'll sleep more easily
And your small kingdom will swell in stature
Like a cub protected by the great lion's paw.

Gwilym
O, Siwan – I didn't come here to talk politics.

Siwan
Talking politics with you
Is a form of defence for me.

Gwilym
How is that?

Siwan
It keeps my thoughts from other things.

Gwilym
Are you frightened of some other truths?

Siwan
Not frightened of the truth –
But of hearing it spoken perhaps.

Gwilym
Do I frighten you Siwan? Is that it?

Siwan
Not you. The things I'm really frightened of
Are within me. And you awaken them.

Gwilym
They're the very things
That make life so sweet.

Siwan
They can make life bitter too
If they're suppressed and hidden away –
I buried them somewhere deep in my soul
Knowing that I dare not set them free,
Not even acknowledge them in my life here
As Llywelyn's princess and political partner.
Because I had to make that choice
Between my natural passions
And stately protocol. Yes, I'm bitter.

Gwilym
You've guessed then why I came here
To arrange the wedding.

Siwan
You don't understand do you
That politics and pleasure should not mix.

Gwilym
I wouldn't call my longing for you a pleasure.

Siwan
Is your flatterer's tongue faltering?
Or do you mean to say that your longing
For me is becoming burdensome?

Gwilym
One thing I didn't come here to do
Was to exchange jibes.

Siwan
That wasn't a jibe.
I'm ten years older than you.
Dafydd, the son in law I'm giving you
Is almost as old as you.

Gwilym
I was only ten years old,
At my father's wedding in Hereford
When I first set eyes on you, Princess,
As you led your first daughter, a child bride,
To be my father's second wife,
And the crowd in the church garlanding
Your path with rose petals.
I didn't speak to you then – I couldn't.
My heart was in my throat.
I gathered up a handful
Of scented rose petals,
And they were my pillow that night.
Not that I slept.
My mind was restive, hungry …
I didn't see you then until I was brought here
In manacles. My wounds were light –
But I became feverish.
You came to my bed, surrounded by your maids.
Walking towards me as I'd seen you in Hereford.
Was it the fever?
Or was it my breathless excitement
That made me sweat and lie atremble
As you knelt over me, placing your lips on my mouth?

Siwan
You fainted. You frightened us so.

Gwilym
But you knew that my wounds weren't serious.
It was that kiss. It was fated,
Like Isault's kiss …

Siwan
Gwilym, ssh … Not that unhappy tale.
Tristan and Isault have haunted me this evening.

Gwilym
I'll talk of happier things.
When I'd recovered, I stayed awhile.
We'd go riding along the mountain passes
Stopping on some sunlit verge to drink wine.
And there was singing and dancing in this fortress …
The halls of Gwynedd's court were
As bright as any in Aquitaine.
Then your kisses turned from courtly greetings
To a hotter, sweeter foretaste
Of this tryst tonight.
Do you remember when you first kissed me
With your mouth on fire, greedy …

Siwan
And the very next day Llywelyn returned.
With your ransom paid.

Gwilym
He's got a knack of returning
At the wrong time.

Siwan
We had a week of discretion
And keeping distance.
Then you left.

Gwilym
You see. And that's why I've returned.
My daughter's marriage to your Dafydd
Was agreed by me, so that I could be here now,
To claim you, make love to you Siwan.
Of course, you knew that.

Siwan
Did I dare know it? I didn't think
You'd give your daughter's hand
And your castle in Builth as dowry
Simply to open the way to my bed.

Gwilym
I'd give my whole kingdom
For this night in your bed Siwan.

Siwan
All your worldly wealth?
Like Saint Francis.
Sanctity and sensuality are two poles
Of the same madness. They both make men
Forsake reason and caution.

Gwilym
I heard that Francis as a young man
Was a gambler and a squanderer.
I like men who gamble, with money and with fate
Who can lose and still cock a snook
At life and luck.
If Francis was ever such a lad
He's the Saint for me.

Siwan
I'll pray to him on your behalf
Asking him to guard you from ill-fortune.

Gwilym
But not tonight. Fortune's with me tonight.
If I lose my luck and lose your love
Then I'll plead with Saint Francis.

Siwan
You love danger too much.
That reckless bravado of yours
Makes me fear for you.

Gwilym
You have to take me as I am Siwan.
Since I was a child
I've been in my element hunting, fighting
Accepting dares. That's how you squeeze
The grapes of experience till your mouth
Runs with the tang of their juices.

Siwan
Am I one of those bunches,
Ripe on the vine?

Gwilym
Your taste will be sweeter Siwan.
More exquisite, even more heady.

Siwan
Did you mention this to anyone
At my brother's court?

Gwilym
Who would I tell?

Siwan
And you told nobody that I suggested
This Easter as the time to meet
To make the wedding arrangements?

Gwilym
Perhaps I mentioned that. Perhaps I told
Hubert the Chancellor. Such details
Interest him. Why?

Siwan
Hubert de Burgh is a venomous viper of a man.
And my husband was with him yesterday.
What if Llywelyn comes back here
With Hubert's insinuations nagging in his brain?

Gwilym
If Llywelyn suspected anything
He's a wily enough statesman
To let me deliver my castle as dowry
Before unleashing any angry accusation.
I know the Prince of Gwynedd.

Siwan
That's more than I can safely say
And I've been married to him for twenty five years.
A Prince and statesman can be as impetuous as the next man.

Gwilym
Why talk of him now?
You promised this night to me.

Siwan
I do give you this night.
I give you myself, my heart, my body
In this royal bed.
Here, now, I'm yours Gwilym Brewys.

Gwilym
And your love?
Do you give that too Siwan?

Siwan
I don't know yet.
Tonight, yielding willingly is enough.
Tomorrow, who knows.
Perhaps I'll be in love with you tomorrow.
But by then tonight will be over
And we'll wonder if there can be another.

Gwilym
I'll wait. You summoned me tonight
You put the opiates in the guards' possets.

Siwan
I did that. My own hand.
Tonight's my gift to you.

Gwilym
And why Siwan? Why all this for me?

Siwan
Because you remember how things first taste
And how that first taste is all, before it fades.
Because you laugh at danger
And life's frightening fragility.
Because your excitement is mine to take
And your ecstasy is mine to give.
Because it's now the eve of May Day.

Gwilym
Your bed is beckoning Siwan.

Siwan
Come to the window first
Breathe in this scented night air.
I'm giving all my senses full rein tonight.
And look at that moon over Anglesey Gwilym.

Gwilym
D'you hear those sounds, like horses in the distance?

Siwan
Hill ponies, panicked by something, stampeding?

Gwilym
Those steeds are shod, I tell you.

Siwan
There's nothing now.

Gwilym
No. Not now. But my ear
Is attuned to the sound of hooves.
I'm hardly ever mistaken.

Siwan
What was that?

Gwilym
That was a dog. Somewhere by the fortress gate.

Siwan
Gelert.

Gwilym
What?

Siwan
It was Gelert. Llywelyn's hound. I'm certain of it.

Gwilym
No. He's taken Gelert with him.
To do some hunting on his journey home.
What a dog! I saw it once
Running down a stag, bounding along the crags,
Defying death, above the abyss …

Siwan
I know Gelert's bark. I heard Gelert out there.

Gwilym
You heard a dog. But not Llywelyn's hound.
Siwan, my love. The candles' flames are flickering low
And this royal bed begs us to make bold use of it.
Let me take you before the light dies.

Siwan
Sshh! Listen!

Gwilym
I can't hear anything …

Siwan
People over by the gates, people moving,
Someone's arriving, coming in …

Gwilym
It's your imagination. Your pretty ears
Are flattened back like a frightened cat's.
Why are you suddenly so nervous?

Siwan
No – Listen! There!

Gwilym
The fortress gates, yes, opened and closed.
The sentries are probably changing shift.

Siwan
When the guard changes, Gwilym
No one opens the main gates.
Something's afoot. And now, men running …
Look, look! Torches moving through the dark.
Towards this keep.

Gwilym
What's happening?

Siwan
Dear God – what is this?

Gwilym
Soldiers are surrounding this tower.
You're right. Something's going on …

Siwan
Your sword. Where's your sword?

Gwilym
Not with me. Not even a dagger. Nothing.
I'm going to see if the stairway's clear.

Siwan
He's here. Gwilym! Llywelyn is back!

Gwilym
And tens of armed soldiers around this keep's entrance.
We've been betrayed Siwan. We're trapped.

Siwan
Can you get out between the window pillars?

Gwilym
The space is too narrow.
Where are the maids' chambers?

Siwan
Down next to the tower's door.

Gwilym
And what's above us?

Siwan
The turret loft. It's locked.

Gwilym
There's nowhere to escape.
No move I can make.
The Prince must be welcomed to his royal chamber.
It sounds as if he's on his way.
How shall his welcome be?
Simple and sans ceremony?

Siwan
Come to the bed. Lie here, in my arms.
I'll give myself to you now my love.
Llywelyn and soldiers rush in.

Llywelyn
Take him. Tie his hands and arms.

Gwilym
You won't need to do that.
I've no dagger or sword.

Llywelyn
Tie him up I said. Stand him here.
Gwilym Brewys. I caught you once before,
In battle. As a prisoner of war
You were free to walk this castle's halls,
Your wounds were nursed …
This is how you repay me!
Making Gwynedd's queen a harlot
And myself a cuckold, to be ridiculed
In the courts of France and England.

Gwilym
Now there spits the rhetoric of wounded pride.
I've loved a Princess, who's a married woman,
But so do hundreds of noblemen.
Such things are as much part of our lives
As jousts and tournaments.
You caught me in your bed. Very well –
Exact your penalty,
Make me pay for this indiscretion.
You're already promised my castle in Builth as dowry
And your son is to take my daughter.
Now for this – take more of my lands,
Of my wealth – take anything you want.

Llywelyn
This indiscretion? Make you pay!
You French lords are lousy jesters.
When I beat you in battle that cost you
A third of all you owned. The whole
Of your possessions wouldn't come close
To paying for this infamy tonight.
Oh yes, I'll take your castle in Builth.
I'll also take your life.

Gwilym
That's more than you would dare.
Your anger, my Lord, is clouding your common sense.
Every lord in France, in England and the Marches
Would turn against you, and take up arms to challenge you
If you dared kill me. That action
Could ruin Gwynedd.

Llywelyn
If the Pope himself and the whole
Of Christendom vowed to rise against me –
I'd still take your life.

Gwilym
Oh! This isn't righteous anger
Or wounded dignity. This is jealousy!
Siwan, my lady, what other Princess
In the whole of Europe has a husband who …

Llywelyn
Shut him up men. Gag his insolence.


Gwilym is gagged.

Siwan
My Lord. May I ask a question?

Llywelyn
You?

Siwan
Yesterday you bade farewell to my brother
The king before he set forth for France.

Llywelyn
What of that?

Siwan
Was it then Hubert de Burgh who told you of this?

Llywelyn
And if it was, would that
Make your whoring any less heinous?

Siwan
He owns strategic shires to the south of our kingdom.
His power's expanding, his wealth growing.

Llywelyn
This is no time to discuss Hubert's estates.

Siwan
Hubert is close to taking the rest of Glamorgan
And soon he'll have a kingdom in South Wales
To match the size and strength of Gwynedd here.

Llywelyn
Ma dame – I don't hear your counselling.
I see only this treachery
This desecration of my bed, my wife …

Siwan
Gwilym Brewys has no male heir.
Who but he can stand between Gwynedd
And Hubert de Burgh? Between Hubert's ambition
And the security of our princedom, Dafydd's future throne …

Llywelyn
Aye, no one but he.
Yet you'll not persuade me.
You'll not have your way.

Siwan
If you kill Gwilym, his territories will fragment
And Hubert de Burgh's might will border our own.
Was it to help Hubert's aspirations
That you rushed home tonight?

Llywelyn
Ma dame your concern for me is touching.

Siwan
It's not easy to set aside
A quarter of a century's politicking.

Llywelyn
Easy though to cast aside your clothes
To toss your purity to the swine.

Siwan
I've wronged you. Of course I have. But now
I'm arguing for your kingdom's sake,
Our son's inheritance Llywelyn.

Llywelyn
Are you claiming that such thoughts
Were in your mind as you took
This scoundrel to the royal bed?

Siwan
I'm asking you to pause, to think.
Putting a pair of cuckold horns on your head
Isn't a reason for letting your teeth be drawn.

Llywelyn
Not even adultery's enough for you.
Your shameless mocking
Is insult upon injury Siwan.

Siwan
I'm a Frenchwoman. And a King's daughter.
Your Welsh moral strictures
Aren't part of my upbringing Llywelyn.

Llywelyn
A Frenchwoman best served by a Frenchman eh?

Siwan
I'm trying to protect your life's achievements
From one night's rage. Gwilym Brewys's life
Is vital to the security of
This kingdom's southern borders.

Llywelyn
Gwilym Brewys's life is what you're desperately trying to save.

Siwan
Yes … Yes.

Llywelyn
So, then – he will die.

Siwan
And your kingdom, the future
We've been building for Dafydd?

Llywelyn
To hell with the kingdom and with you.
I've lost my wife tonight.
Now you can lose your lover.

Siwan
You daren't kill him.

Llywelyn
Take him to the dungeons.

Siwan
My brother – he'll come back from France …
The King of England, Llywelyn …

Llywelyn
This vermin will hang. Like a common brigand.

Siwan
Gwilym!

Llywelyn
Yes. He'll hang.

Siwan
Gwilym!


Siwan runs to Gwilym.

Llywelyn
No – stay away from him.


Llywelyn strikes her hard across the face. She cries out.

Llywelyn
I never thought I'd hit you …
Take him from here.
Take her to the tower loft.
And lock her up.

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