Ciw-restr

The Royal Bed

Llinellau gan Siwan (Cyfanswm: 617)

 
(1, 0) 5 The music's over now.
(1, 0) 6 There – the last lantern's been put out.
 
(1, 0) 8 What a moon. Such a light night.
(1, 0) 9 We hardly need these candles …
(1, 0) 10 What time is it Alis?
 
(1, 0) 13 Yes. Put it away in the chest.
 
(1, 0) 16 Now this gown. I can't wait to be free of it, Alis.
 
(1, 0) 24 They shouldn't be surprised at that.
(1, 0) 25 Half the English court are Frenchmen.
(1, 0) 26 The new Welsh nobles have French blood.
(1, 0) 27 And tonight we're celebrating a pact
(1, 0) 28 Between France and Gwilym's Brecon
(1, 0) 29 Which will be sealed when his daughter marries my son.
(1, 0) 30 The French knights knew the significance
(1, 0) 31 Of the contracts we made this evening.
 
(1, 0) 33 With that heavy crown, weighing on me so?
(1, 0) 34 That great silver gown billowing around me?
(1, 0) 35 Even for the French dances I'd need far lighter
(1, 0) 36 Dress than that.
(1, 0) 37 My duty tonight was to take the throne
(1, 0) 38 In my Prince's absence.
 
(1, 0) 44 Yes. I'll dance at Dafydd's wedding.
(1, 0) 45 A dance to celebrate his golden future.
(1, 0) 46 I'll dance for Dafydd.
 
(1, 0) 49 Do that, Alis. The crown pressed into my head
(1, 0) 50 And made my temples ache.
(1, 0) 51 I'd like you to comb my hair.
(1, 0) 52 I'll sit here for you.
 
(1, 0) 58 Not that song, Alis. Not tonight.
 
(1, 0) 61 As my mother taught them to me.
(1, 0) 62 But Tristan and Isault is too sad a story for tonight.
 
(1, 0) 70 Let Tristan and Isault rest, Alis …
(1, 0) 71 And finish my hair.
 
(1, 0) 79 Have you finished with my hair girl?
 
(1, 0) 83 The taste might teach that tongue of yours a lesson.
(1, 0) 84 The wine I left outside, did you give it to the doorkeepers?
 
(1, 0) 86 They were both sleeping soundly,
(1, 0) 87 One on either side of the door.
 
(1, 0) 90 No. Let them sleep.
(1, 0) 91 Tomorrow's May Day.
 
(1, 0) 101 Have you … been with boys Alis?
 
(1, 0) 104 I was a King's daughter. And at fifteen
(1, 0) 105 A mother myself, to a little prince.
(1, 0) 106 I gave my young womb to political imperative
(1, 0) 107 Like every royal daughter.
 
(1, 0) 112 You don't know what you're saying Alis.
(1, 0) 113 Take your candle to your room, go to bed.
(1, 0) 114 I won't sleep for a while yet.
(1, 0) 115 I'll knock on the floor if I need you.
 
(1, 0) 119 Pour la reine qu'il aima.
 
(1, 0) 122 Gwilym!
 
(1, 0) 125 Today, at sunrise, Henry, King of England,
(1, 0) 126 My brother, sails for France.
 
(1, 0) 128 You're a hot blooded young man …
 
(1, 0) 130 I still see you as that brash young upstart
(1, 0) 131 Captured, carried here wounded from battle
(1, 0) 132 For us to subdue and to nurse …
 
(1, 0) 135 That's why I kept my maid here the while.
 
(1, 0) 137 No. The implications, Gwilym. My significance.
(1, 0) 138 I bind two kingdoms. A King of England
(1, 0) 139 And a Prince of Gwynedd.
(1, 0) 140 Your coming here now, is no trifling matter.
(1, 0) 141 What if one of Gwynedd's Royal Council
(1, 0) 142 Saw you crossing the green and entering this keep?
(1, 0) 143 What if my Prince was to learn of this?
(1, 0) 144 With my brother away in France
(1, 0) 145 He'd have a free hand to wreak his vengeance
(1, 0) 146 In whatever way he wanted. The implications
(1, 0) 147 Gwilym.
 
(1, 0) 150 A prudent precaution, knowing how reckless you can be.
 
(1, 0) 155 Not in the dead of night.
(1, 0) 156 Not in the royal bed, like this.
 
(1, 0) 159 Yes. I want it. But it's the Prince's decision.
(1, 0) 160 He's fifty-seven. He wants a grandson.
(1, 0) 161 Allying with you and Brecon secures our borders,
(1, 0) 162 And a child from that alliance would also secure
(1, 0) 163 Llywelyn's bloodline.
(1, 0) 164 Longevity runs in Llywelyn's family.
(1, 0) 165 If our Dafydd and a son of his inherit that trait
(1, 0) 166 This kingdom could be secure for another century.
(1, 0) 167 One lesson that Llywelyn continually tries to teach me
(1, 0) 168 Is that success is bred from patience.
(1, 0) 169 Yet I find patience such an elusive virtue.
 
(1, 0) 171 You're married, a hearthful of daughters,
(1, 0) 172 Don't you know that a wife has nothing
(1, 0) 173 Worth teaching her husband?
 
(1, 0) 180 Perhaps that's a form of escape for me.
(1, 0) 181 I inherited a passionate, restless nature,
(1, 0) 182 From my father.
(1, 0) 183 To keep myself sane I occupy my time, like a man,
(1, 0) 184 With my husband's stratagems, his statesmanship.
 
(1, 0) 193 The only thing that forges real change in a man
(1, 0) 194 Is love. Are you telling me
(1, 0) 195 That Llywelyn loves me as you do?
 
(1, 0) 199 The unruliness of passion is anathema to statesmanship
(1, 0) 200 Only once did I allow my heart
(1, 0) 201 To rule my head in such matters.
 
(1, 0) 203 When I suggested the union
(1, 0) 204 Of Gwynedd's heir
(1, 0) 205 To Gwilym Brewys's daughter.
(1, 0) 206 Of mine and yours.
 
(1, 0) 208 A desperately bad suggestions
(1, 0) 209 If Dafydd doesn't sire a son.
 
(1, 0) 211 Why?
 
(1, 0) 213 To finalise the arrangements for that wedding.
 
(1, 0) 216 Because you have no male successors.
(1, 0) 217 Four girls won't secure the future of Brecon.
(1, 0) 218 And we border on Brecon. Our northern princedom
(1, 0) 219 Dwarfs your swathe of lands.
(1, 0) 220 Just as to your south you're dwarfed
(1, 0) 221 By Hubert de Burgh's South Wales territories.
(1, 0) 222 Make an ally of us – and you'll sleep more easily
(1, 0) 223 And your small kingdom will swell in stature
(1, 0) 224 Like a cub protected by the great lion's paw.
 
(1, 0) 226 Talking politics with you
(1, 0) 227 Is a form of defence for me.
 
(1, 0) 229 It keeps my thoughts from other things.
 
(1, 0) 231 Not frightened of the truth –
(1, 0) 232 But of hearing it spoken perhaps.
 
(1, 0) 234 Not you. The things I'm really frightened of
(1, 0) 235 Are within me. And you awaken them.
 
(1, 0) 238 They can make life bitter too
(1, 0) 239 If they're suppressed and hidden away –
(1, 0) 240 I buried them somewhere deep in my soul
(1, 0) 241 Knowing that I dare not set them free,
(1, 0) 242 Not even acknowledge them in my life here
(1, 0) 243 As Llywelyn's princess and political partner.
(1, 0) 244 Because I had to make that choice
(1, 0) 245 Between my natural passions
(1, 0) 246 And stately protocol. Yes, I'm bitter.
 
(1, 0) 249 You don't understand do you
(1, 0) 250 That politics and pleasure should not mix.
 
(1, 0) 252 Is your flatterer's tongue faltering?
(1, 0) 253 Or do you mean to say that your longing
(1, 0) 254 For me is becoming burdensome?
 
(1, 0) 257 That wasn't a jibe.
(1, 0) 258 I'm ten years older than you.
(1, 0) 259 Dafydd, the son in law I'm giving you
(1, 0) 260 Is almost as old as you.
 
(1, 0) 284 You fainted. You frightened us so.
 
(1, 0) 288 Gwilym, ssh … Not that unhappy tale.
(1, 0) 289 Tristan and Isault have haunted me this evening.
 
(1, 0) 302 And the very next day Llywelyn returned.
(1, 0) 303 With your ransom paid.
 
(1, 0) 306 We had a week of discretion
(1, 0) 307 And keeping distance.
(1, 0) 308 Then you left.
 
(1, 0) 314 Did I dare know it? I didn't think
(1, 0) 315 You'd give your daughter's hand
(1, 0) 316 And your castle in Builth as dowry
(1, 0) 317 Simply to open the way to my bed.
 
(1, 0) 320 All your worldly wealth?
(1, 0) 321 Like Saint Francis.
(1, 0) 322 Sanctity and sensuality are two poles
(1, 0) 323 Of the same madness. They both make men
(1, 0) 324 Forsake reason and caution.
 
(1, 0) 332 I'll pray to him on your behalf
(1, 0) 333 Asking him to guard you from ill-fortune.
 
(1, 0) 337 You love danger too much.
(1, 0) 338 That reckless bravado of yours
(1, 0) 339 Makes me fear for you.
 
(1, 0) 346 Am I one of those bunches,
(1, 0) 347 Ripe on the vine?
 
(1, 0) 350 Did you mention this to anyone
(1, 0) 351 At my brother's court?
 
(1, 0) 353 And you told nobody that I suggested
(1, 0) 354 This Easter as the time to meet
(1, 0) 355 To make the wedding arrangements?
 
(1, 0) 359 Hubert de Burgh is a venomous viper of a man.
(1, 0) 360 And my husband was with him yesterday.
(1, 0) 361 What if Llywelyn comes back here
(1, 0) 362 With Hubert's insinuations nagging in his brain?
 
(1, 0) 368 That's more than I can safely say
(1, 0) 369 And I've been married to him for twenty five years.
(1, 0) 370 A Prince and statesman can be as impetuous as the next man.
 
(1, 0) 373 I do give you this night.
(1, 0) 374 I give you myself, my heart, my body
(1, 0) 375 In this royal bed.
(1, 0) 376 Here, now, I'm yours Gwilym Brewys.
 
(1, 0) 379 I don't know yet.
(1, 0) 380 Tonight, yielding willingly is enough.
(1, 0) 381 Tomorrow, who knows.
(1, 0) 382 Perhaps I'll be in love with you tomorrow.
(1, 0) 383 But by then tonight will be over
(1, 0) 384 And we'll wonder if there can be another.
 
(1, 0) 387 I did that. My own hand.
(1, 0) 388 Tonight's my gift to you.
 
(1, 0) 390 Because you remember how things first taste
(1, 0) 391 And how that first taste is all, before it fades.
(1, 0) 392 Because you laugh at danger
(1, 0) 393 And life's frightening fragility.
(1, 0) 394 Because your excitement is mine to take
(1, 0) 395 And your ecstasy is mine to give.
(1, 0) 396 Because it's now the eve of May Day.
 
(1, 0) 398 Come to the window first
(1, 0) 399 Breathe in this scented night air.
(1, 0) 400 I'm giving all my senses full rein tonight.
(1, 0) 401 And look at that moon over Anglesey Gwilym.
 
(1, 0) 403 Hill ponies, panicked by something, stampeding?
 
(1, 0) 405 There's nothing now.
 
(1, 0) 409 What was that?
 
(1, 0) 411 Gelert.
 
(1, 0) 413 It was Gelert. Llywelyn's hound. I'm certain of it.
 
(1, 0) 419 I know Gelert's bark. I heard Gelert out there.
 
(1, 0) 424 Sshh! Listen!
 
(1, 0) 426 People over by the gates, people moving,
(1, 0) 427 Someone's arriving, coming in …
 
(1, 0) 431 No – Listen! There!
 
(1, 0) 434 When the guard changes, Gwilym
(1, 0) 435 No one opens the main gates.
(1, 0) 436 Something's afoot. And now, men running …
(1, 0) 437 Look, look! Torches moving through the dark.
(1, 0) 438 Towards this keep.
 
(1, 0) 440 Dear God – what is this?
 
(1, 0) 443 Your sword. Where's your sword?
 
(1, 0) 446 He's here. Gwilym! Llywelyn is back!
 
(1, 0) 449 Can you get out between the window pillars?
 
(1, 0) 452 Down next to the tower's door.
 
(1, 0) 454 The turret loft. It's locked.
 
(1, 0) 461 Come to the bed. Lie here, in my arms.
(1, 0) 462 I'll give myself to you now my love.
(1, 0) 463 Llywelyn and soldiers rush in.
 
(1, 0) 511 My Lord. May I ask a question?
 
(1, 0) 513 Yesterday you bade farewell to my brother
(1, 0) 514 The king before he set forth for France.
 
(1, 0) 516 Was it then Hubert de Burgh who told you of this?
 
(1, 0) 519 He owns strategic shires to the south of our kingdom.
(1, 0) 520 His power's expanding, his wealth growing.
 
(1, 0) 522 Hubert is close to taking the rest of Glamorgan
(1, 0) 523 And soon he'll have a kingdom in South Wales
(1, 0) 524 To match the size and strength of Gwynedd here.
 
(1, 0) 528 Gwilym Brewys has no male heir.
(1, 0) 529 Who but he can stand between Gwynedd
(1, 0) 530 And Hubert de Burgh? Between Hubert's ambition
(1, 0) 531 And the security of our princedom, Dafydd's future throne …
 
(1, 0) 535 If you kill Gwilym, his territories will fragment
(1, 0) 536 And Hubert de Burgh's might will border our own.
(1, 0) 537 Was it to help Hubert's aspirations
(1, 0) 538 That you rushed home tonight?
 
(1, 0) 540 It's not easy to set aside
(1, 0) 541 A quarter of a century's politicking.
 
(1, 0) 544 I've wronged you. Of course I have. But now
(1, 0) 545 I'm arguing for your kingdom's sake,
(1, 0) 546 Our son's inheritance Llywelyn.
 
(1, 0) 550 I'm asking you to pause, to think.
(1, 0) 551 Putting a pair of cuckold horns on your head
(1, 0) 552 Isn't a reason for letting your teeth be drawn.
 
(1, 0) 556 I'm a Frenchwoman. And a King's daughter.
(1, 0) 557 Your Welsh moral strictures
(1, 0) 558 Aren't part of my upbringing Llywelyn.
 
(1, 0) 560 I'm trying to protect your life's achievements
(1, 0) 561 From one night's rage. Gwilym Brewys's life
(1, 0) 562 Is vital to the security of
(1, 0) 563 This kingdom's southern borders.
 
(1, 0) 565 Yes … Yes.
 
(1, 0) 567 And your kingdom, the future
(1, 0) 568 We've been building for Dafydd?
 
(1, 0) 572 You daren't kill him.
 
(1, 0) 574 My brother – he'll come back from France …
(1, 0) 575 The King of England, Llywelyn …
 
(1, 0) 577 Gwilym!
 
(1, 0) 579 Gwilym!
 
(2, 0) 593 No. Because I haven't slept.
 
(2, 0) 595 I'm not used to an iron clamp and chains
(2, 0) 596 Around my leg. Or being tied to a wall
(2, 0) 597 Like a fairground bear. The chain's heavy Alis.
(2, 0) 598 Feel its weight – the weight of a Prince's anger.
 
(2, 0) 602 It hurts my dignity so much
(2, 0) 603 That I hardly feel the pain in my leg.
(2, 0) 604 Before now I've ordered men to be manacled
(2, 0) 605 And chained without even guessing
(2, 0) 606 At the indignity of it.
 
(2, 0) 609 Why today and not tomorrow?
(2, 0) 610 What will change today?
 
(2, 0) 613 Did he send you here?
 
(2, 0) 616 That guard's a mute. All day yesterday
(2, 0) 617 I didn't see a soul. Only that mute beyond the door.
 
(2, 0) 619 And can't act as a go between.
(2, 0) 620 That's why the mute was chosen.
(2, 0) 621 So why are they allowing you to come to me now?
(2, 0) 622 Has he changed his attitude towards me?
 
(2, 0) 624 This wine's sharp. But it'll quench my thirst.
(2, 0) 625 Today's the third of May. Isn't it?
 
(2, 0) 627 Two days, two nights. This cell's deathly silence
(2, 0) 628 Makes May Day eve seems years away.
(2, 0) 629 Did you ever sleep alone in a bare room Alis?
 
(2, 0) 632 The solitude of this cell is different. It's a world
(2, 0) 633 Where silence reigns. Where speech is redundant.
(2, 0) 634 That dumb guard … These dumb stones.
 
(2, 0) 636 I know. But it drives me to distraction,
(2, 0) 637 Not knowing what's happening
(2, 0) 638 Beyond the silence of this cell.
(2, 0) 639 What time of morning is it Alis?
 
(2, 0) 641 The sixth since midnight. Add twenty four to that
(2, 0) 642 And another twenty four. I've been in this tower
(2, 0) 643 Almost sixty hours. I once listened to a learned monk
(2, 0) 644 Explaining that time doesn't exist
(2, 0) 645 In eternity. I hope he's right.
(2, 0) 646 Counting each hour's passing is as maddening
(2, 0) 647 To the mind as the sound of that hammering outside.
(2, 0) 648 It started sometime before dawn.
 
(2, 0) 652 So, why were you sent here Alis?
 
(2, 0) 655 And the Prince himself sent you?
 
(2, 0) 658 There's some mystery here. He told you
(2, 0) 659 To see to my needs. Are you allowed
(2, 0) 660 To carry messages for me?
 
(2, 0) 662 That's my only need. The only service
(2, 0) 663 You could render me.
(2, 0) 664 What is that incessant hammering
(2, 0) 665 Out on the green?
 
(2, 0) 667 You must have seen them working
(2, 0) 668 As you crossed the yard to come here.
 
(2, 0) 671 Go to the window and look out. This chain
(2, 0) 672 Stops me short of seeing outside.
(2, 0) 673 If my father the king had known I'd be tethered
(2, 0) 674 Like some animal for baiting …
(2, 0) 675 So what are they building?
 
(2, 0) 677 Don't lie to me girl. You can see perfectly well
(2, 0) 678 From there. I've looked through that window myself
(2, 0) 679 Countless times. So tell me.
 
(2, 0) 682 What's wrong with you. You're shaking.
(2, 0) 683 Calm down – and tell me what's happening out there.
 
(2, 0) 685 Gallows?
 
(2, 0) 687 Well done, Llywelyn. That's my punishment.
(2, 0) 688 Your rage is greater than I imagined.
(2, 0) 689 Alis, don't cry – if that's to be my fate …
 
(2, 0) 691 What?
 
(2, 0) 700 I'm ashamed of myself.
 
(2, 0) 704 Was I in a faint for long?
 
(2, 0) 706 The hammering's stopped. Has anything happened out there?
 
(2, 0) 709 That's good. Whatever happens, I want to be aware of it.
(2, 0) 710 Have the soldiers finished? Go and look.
 
(2, 0) 712 How was he sentenced Alis? By the Court of Law?
(2, 0) 713 Or by the Prince himself?
 
(2, 0) 719 No doubt the Bishop was trying to placate Llywelyn
(2, 0) 720 With a comforting explanation.
(2, 0) 721 And who knows. Witchcraft it may have been.
(2, 0) 722 There's something other worldly in such frantic longing.
(2, 0) 723 That's why real passion is such a rare visitor to our lives.
 
(2, 0) 725 A little loss of blood might cool me down.
(2, 0) 726 After the Bishop's visit?
 
(2, 0) 728 Was my son Dafydd there?
 
(2, 0) 731 I'm glad. And what was resolved by the Court?
 
(2, 0) 744 And when was the verdict announced?
 
(2, 0) 750 Does he know?
 
(2, 0) 752 When was he told?
 
(2, 0) 755 And have you heard any news about him?
(2, 0) 756 How is he?
 
(2, 0) 763 What was he singing Alis?
 
(2, 0) 767 Have you ever seen a hanging?
 
(2, 0) 770 No. Never. Strangely enough.
 
(2, 0) 783 How long do they take to die?
 
(2, 0) 788 Who throws the ladder?
 
(2, 0) 800 Holy Mary – let him leap like Gelert.
 
(2, 0) 802 Go to the window Alis. Tell me what's happening.
 
(2, 0) 810 Stay at the window girl – or I'll break this chain.
 
(2, 0) 812 I'm not going to swoon a second time.
(2, 0) 813 I won't even shed a tear Alis.
(2, 0) 814 I want to go through these minutes with him
(2, 0) 815 And be brave for him.
(2, 0) 816 Take up your place.
 
(2, 0) 824 Saint Francis, let him keep his hands free
(2, 0) 825 So that he can leap.
(2, 0) 826 Saint Francis, you loved the wild wolves,
(2, 0) 827 Please help my little wolf.
 
(2, 0) 835 Is he there?
 
(2, 0) 848 I can't pray. I don't know how to pray.
(2, 0) 849 I'd willingly strike a bargain
(2, 0) 850 With any saint who'd listen.
(2, 0) 851 I'd spend a life in prison, if only
(2, 0) 852 He be allowed to leap!
 
(2, 0) 859 How does he look?
 
(2, 0) 865 Free?
(2, 0) 866 He can leap? He'll be able to do that …
(2, 0) 867 Does he look frightened?
 
(2, 0) 873 All the saints, if you can pray, pray for him.
 
(2, 0) 881 Yes?
 
(2, 0) 890 This hour … The hour of his dying – Amen.
 
(2, 0) 897 Is that the end?
 
(2, 0) 923 From the depth of this hell in my heart, I curse you
(2, 0) 924 Llywelyn.
 
(3, 0) 1053 You called for me, my Lord. Here I am.
 
(3, 0) 1055 My Lord?
 
(3, 0) 1059 Llywelyn?
 
(3, 0) 1063 You need me?
(3, 0) 1064 How can that be?
 
(3, 0) 1066 I've been a prisoner for months now my Lord.
 
(3, 0) 1069 Is today May Day eve? I've lost count.
 
(3, 0) 1071 Do you have to be so unfeeling towards your prisoner?
 
(3, 0) 1074 Today of all days – ordering me here
(3, 0) 1075 Straight from my prison. Why did you call me?
 
(3, 0) 1078 No, no, no. Not ever again.
(3, 0) 1079 I can't talk about Gwilym. Show some pity my Lord.
(3, 0) 1080 Let me get back to my cell.
 
(3, 0) 1090 Once more to war? Is that the Council's advice?
 
(3, 0) 1094 Why my advice?
 
(3, 0) 1097 Yes, you have a right. I gave you that right.
(3, 0) 1098 And I can't withdraw it now.
(3, 0) 1099 But why do you exercise your right today?
 
(3, 0) 1103 And you're ordering me to co-operate?
 
(3, 0) 1105 Why d'you need to go to war again?
(3, 0) 1106 You're almost sixty. What d'you have to prove?
 
(3, 0) 1109 I've been a whole year without news,
(3, 0) 1110 My reactions are dulled to its significance.
(3, 0) 1111 But how does William Marshall's death
(3, 0) 1112 Take us to the brink of war?
 
(3, 0) 1115 And now?
 
(3, 0) 1117 Fortune comes to those who seek it.
(3, 0) 1118 You've done your share to help him prosper –
(3, 0) 1119 I seem to recall telling you so.
 
(3, 0) 1121 And his successor is his little son?
 
(3, 0) 1125 And the little Earl's lands
(3, 0) 1126 In Gloucester and Glamorgan?
 
(3, 0) 1128 Your friend Hubert grows ever more corpulent
(3, 0) 1129 Through feeding on good luck
(3, 0) 1130 Or a diet of very wily design.
 
(3, 0) 1132 That won't undo a death or unknot a noose.
(3, 0) 1133 That night I was trying to save a life.
(3, 0) 1134 Your rage made you deaf to political wisdom.
(3, 0) 1135 God rest Gwilym's soul. Hubert is a viper.
 
(3, 0) 1140 And he's Chancellor to the English crown.
(3, 0) 1141 So England's court and France's are his allies.
(3, 0) 1142 Dare you go to war?
 
(3, 0) 1150 If you do nothing – will Hubert
(3, 0) 1151 Court those weaker lords?
 
(3, 0) 1156 We can't have two great Princes
(3, 0) 1157 Astride this nation's land.
 
(3, 0) 1160 And where's my brother now?
 
(3, 0) 1167 All against you? Then you dare not go to war
(3, 0) 1168 On all fronts. We've always clung to a peace
(3, 0) 1169 Between ourselves and the English, and the Marches,
(3, 0) 1170 Whatever the bitter internal feuding within Wales.
(3, 0) 1171 That was to be the great security
(3, 0) 1172 That we would hand on to Dafydd our son.
 
(3, 0) 1176 War is inevitable. Yes. But when we
(3, 0) 1177 Go to war it should only be
(3, 0) 1178 When we know that we can win it.
(3, 0) 1179 Dafydd's inheritance is at stake.
 
(3, 0) 1183 A year ago today you should have
(3, 0) 1184 Given thought to these great matters.
 
(3, 0) 1186 Did you?
 
(3, 0) 1195 May I ask you then, why you did?
 
(3, 0) 1199 What of England and the Marcher lands?
(3, 0) 1200 Are there any weaknesses there now?
 
(3, 0) 1203 Including Hubert's fiercest enemy, the Bishop Peter?
 
(3, 0) 1206 England's court and the Marches
(3, 0) 1207 Will be at each other's throats.
(3, 0) 1208 Can you delay war until then?
 
(3, 0) 1213 Would early in June be soon enough?
 
(3, 0) 1215 Let loose the southern lords now – to take
(3, 0) 1216 The spoils from Gwilym Brewys's old kingdom
(3, 0) 1217 And promise to join them in the despoiling soon.
(3, 0) 1218 But in the meantime send word to England
(3, 0) 1219 Asking the King's help, keeping the peace, the pact,
(3, 0) 1220 Then the crusaders will return.
(3, 0) 1221 They'll take a hostile stance
(3, 0) 1222 Towards Hubert in Hereford, and challenge
(3, 0) 1223 His sudden influence in Gloucester.
(3, 0) 1224 Some of the Marcher lords
(3, 0) 1225 Are headstrong and haughty enough to engage
(3, 0) 1226 Hubert de Burgh in battle. His army will be
(3, 0) 1227 Dragged hither and hither on different fronts
(3, 0) 1228 Then you strike. His mighty Southern kingdom
(3, 0) 1229 Could be a great dream that never
(3, 0) 1230 Does become a reality.
 
(3, 0) 1238 Does the condition have to do with me?
 
(3, 0) 1241 Does that imply forgiveness?
 
(3, 0) 1243 Forgiving is a form of overcoming.
(3, 0) 1244 I haven't forgiven you.
 
(3, 0) 1246 I knew that his life was destined to be short.
(3, 0) 1247 Killing him was a human response. I forgive that.
(3, 0) 1248 But because he loved me,
(3, 0) 1249 And because I gave myself to that love,
(3, 0) 1250 You gave him the death
(3, 0) 1251 Of a mountain brigand and a common thief.
(3, 0) 1252 You opened our castle to the grimacing
(3, 0) 1253 Cackling peasants of Arfon. You hanged him
(3, 0) 1254 To show your hatred, to spit venom on our love
(3, 0) 1255 Before the crowds of your subjects.
 
(3, 0) 1258 Your councillors were ashamed.
(3, 0) 1259 Your courtiers went quiet,
(3, 0) 1260 Ashamed of your obsessive hate.
 
(3, 0) 1263 You – you, love me? No …
 
(3, 0) 1265 My Lord – I was given to you, a bride,
(3, 0) 1266 At the age of ten. You were
(3, 0) 1267 Already a Prince, in your thirties.
(3, 0) 1268 Four years after that I came to your bed,
(3, 0) 1269 The first time quivering like a frightened leveret.
(3, 0) 1270 I was your wife and bed partner for twenty years.
(3, 0) 1271 I gave you an heir; I gave you daughters.
(3, 0) 1272 I took part in your Council's debates.
(3, 0) 1273 More than once I saved you
(3, 0) 1274 From the anger of my father, and then my brother.
(3, 0) 1275 I was a shield between you and England's throne.
(3, 0) 1276 I travelled to other courts as your representative.
(3, 0) 1277 I put my shoulder behind the building
(3, 0) 1278 Of your great kingdom. And then,
(3, 0) 1279 Once, before my bloom faded, came a lad
(3, 0) 1280 Who sang a song that lit a flame
(3, 0) 1281 In my tired heart.
(3, 0) 1282 You strung him up like some crow on a garden pole.
 
(3, 0) 1286 Why then? Why? I can't live with you,
(3, 0) 1287 I can't lie in the royal bed again
(3, 0) 1288 Without being told why.
 
(3, 0) 1290 You exist as a nightmare does. Since that day.
 
(3, 0) 1295 Tell me what Gwilym saw then.
(3, 0) 1296 I shared that bed with you for twenty years.
(3, 0) 1297 I've a right to know.
 
(3, 0) 1300 A year's imprisonment has blunted those barbs.
 
(3, 0) 1343 Llywelyn, I didn't know. I didn't know.
 
(3, 0) 1349 In twenty years of living together
(3, 0) 1350 You never said that.
 
(3, 0) 1353 Because of that jealousy – you hanged him?
 
(3, 0) 1356 Me? … Me?
 
(3, 0) 1368 Llywelyn – Llywelyn!
(3, 0) 1369 For that base urge to punish me
(3, 0) 1370 You've fallen headlong into a war … You're now almost sixty,
(3, 0) 1371 Surely you know by now that government
(3, 0) 1372 Isn't a matter of chancing and daring on a whim.
 
(3, 0) 1375 That was the opposite of my intention.
 
(3, 0) 1379 You credit me with too much significance Llywelyn.
(3, 0) 1380 We talked at cross purposes.
(3, 0) 1381 You looked for an excuse.
(3, 0) 1382 There were no keys passing from hand to hand.
(3, 0) 1383 Not one single person on this earth
(3, 0) 1384 Properly understands another.
(3, 0) 1385 A husband embraces a wife.
(3, 0) 1386 The wife responds with a kiss.
(3, 0) 1387 Two planets, tied into their separate orbits.
(3, 0) 1388 They'll never merge,
(3, 0) 1389 They'll never share a common sphere.
 
(3, 0) 1397 But war? That's by design, not chance.
 
(3, 0) 1400 What does that have to do with war?
 
(3, 0) 1403 I'm a prisoner. Your sentence separated us.
(3, 0) 1404 Why not command me to come back to you.
 
(3, 0) 1406 If I refuse?
 
(3, 0) 1408 And not return? That threat's unworthy.
 
(3, 0) 1412 I can't come back to your bed
(3, 0) 1413 Without your forgiveness.
 
(3, 0) 1415 On your conditions. I won't grovel for
(3, 0) 1416 Your forgiveness. I won't accept it either
(3, 0) 1417 From a self-obsessed hypocrite,
(3, 0) 1418 I've listened to what you've told me. You say
(3, 0) 1419 I've desecrated the royal bed.
(3, 0) 1420 I also sent my lover to the gallows.
(3, 0) 1421 I caused the South to fall to Hubert.
(3, 0) 1422 I jeopardised Dafydd's kingdom and inheritance,
(3, 0) 1423 I unstitched your sanity, wrecked your ordered world
(3, 0) 1424 But you? You – are a martyr to a bad marriage.
(3, 0) 1425 And now before you go to battle, you'll allow me
(3, 0) 1426 Back into your bed. The royal bed.
(3, 0) 1427 You'll devastate me with your gracious forgiving.
(3, 0) 1428 You with the setting sun on your armour and helmet
(3, 0) 1429 As you ride to your worthy death.
(3, 0) 1430 When your body's brought back from battle
(3, 0) 1431 Should I commission a portrait from the court painter as a tribute
(3, 0) 1432 To the Man Who Was God?
 
(3, 0) 1435 Every married woman is told that
(3, 0) 1436 At one time or other. That's when their husbands
(3, 0) 1437 Are at their most dangerous.
 
(3, 0) 1439 Llywelyn the Great asking forgiveness from a harlot?
 
(3, 0) 1443 No. Don't tell me the truth.
(3, 0) 1444 This isn't a confessional. I'm no priest.
(3, 0) 1445 I'm a defeated woman who wants to win one more skirmish.
 
(3, 0) 1448 For what? Calling me a whore?
(3, 0) 1449 The name sat on me easily enough.
 
(3, 0) 1452 The residue of all this is your pitiful state.
(3, 0) 1453 Gwilym was hanged. He leapt to his death
(3, 0) 1454 Shouting my name. Our love was unbowed
(3, 0) 1455 In those last glorious seconds of defiance.
(3, 0) 1456 I'll remember him like that. We were spared
(3, 0) 1457 Any long disillusion, the cooling of passion,
(3, 0) 1458 Boredom becalming the flesh, and lies
(3, 0) 1459 Cheapening our talking. But you –
(3, 0) 1460 If you do forgive me
(3, 0) 1461 You'll have to live with the ashes of your old self.
(3, 0) 1462 With the nightmare of that night
(3, 0) 1463 When all love died within me. Sleeping with me
(3, 0) 1464 In that royal bed will be like
(3, 0) 1465 Lying in a grave, still alive. Can you, Llywelyn,
(3, 0) 1466 Put up with that? Can you not hate me?
 
(3, 0) 1468 Between us in that bed
(3, 0) 1469 Will be the stench of your trust's defiling.
 
(3, 0) 1472 What shall we do with them Llywelyn?
 
(3, 0) 1482 The habits of a quarter of a century bid me back.
 
(3, 0) 1484 The daft ploys of an old man bent on a new war
(3, 0) 1485 Bid me back.
 
(3, 0) 1488 Llywelyn, I wish you success,
(3, 0) 1489 I wish you wellbeing …
 
(3, 0) 1491 Will you take me back like that,
(3, 0) 1492 With nothing but my goodwill?
 
(3, 0) 1497 One word Llywelyn.
(3, 0) 1498 I'll cheer your victory when it comes.
(3, 0) 1499 I can see Hubert de Burgh's downfall.
(3, 0) 1500 I can see the securing of Dafydd's great inheritance
(3, 0) 1501 But after that, my days won't be many.
 
(3, 0) 1503 No. I won't. Life still surges strongly in you.
(3, 0) 1504 And your urge to succeed still drives you.
(3, 0) 1505 I've lost that. Grant me one wish.
 
(3, 0) 1507 My last testament. From the window of my prison loft
(3, 0) 1508 Beyond the green where he was hanged,
(3, 0) 1509 Over the Menai's waters I could see Dindaethwy
(3, 0) 1510 And the rooks rising and settling in those woods
(3, 0) 1511 By Saint Catrin's resting place.
(3, 0) 1512 Seeing their freedom to glide and swoop, to nest
(3, 0) 1513 And mate and squabble, high above men's to-ing and fro-ing
(3, 0) 1514 Gladdened my heart, made me envious.
(3, 0) 1515 When I die, take my body over the Menai
(3, 0) 1516 Lay me to rest there and give the land
(3, 0) 1517 To the Franciscan brothers to build a church.
 
(3, 0) 1519 I owe a debt to the saint of the rope.
(3, 0) 1520 He liked to chance his luck. To dice with death.
 
(3, 0) 1523 You referred to the marriage vows.
(3, 0) 1524 They tie me to you until death. I abide by them.
(3, 0) 1525 But the grave severs all such ties. Frees us all.
(3, 0) 1526 I want my bones to crumble to dust
(3, 0) 1527 With no one else beside me.