FullReads

Yes. Sit down.

LANCELOT.
Where’s his royal highness?

GUENEVERE.
New York. Why don’t you ever come to see us?

LANCELOT.
( not answering )

Charming domestic picture!

GUENEVERE.
Don’t be silly!

LANCELOT.
I am going away.

GUENEVERE.
Are you? I’m sorry. Don’t you like our little village?

LANCELOT.
Thought I’d stop in to say good-bye.

GUENEVERE.
That’s very sweet of you.

LANCELOT.
( rising )

I’ve got to go back and finish packing.

GUENEVERE.
Not really?

LANCELOT.
Going in the morning.

GUENEVERE.
Why the haste? The summer’s just begun.
I hear you’ve been doing some awfully good things.
I was going over to see them.

LANCELOT.
Thanks. Sorry to disappoint you. But I’ve taken it into my head to leave.

GUENEVERE.
You’re not going tonight, anyway. Sit down and talk to me.

LANCELOT.
All right.

( He sits, constrainedly.)

What shall I talk about?

GUENEVERE.
( smiling )

Your work.

LANCELOT.
( impatiently )

You’re not interested in my work.

GUENEVERE.
Your love-affairs, then.

LANCELOT.
Don’t want to.

GUENEVERE.
Then read to me. There’s some books on the table.

LANCELOT.
( opening a serious-looking magazine )

Here’s an article on “The Concept of Happiness”
–by Professor Arthur B. Robinson. Shall I read that?

GUENEVERE.
I gather that you are not as fond of my husband as I am, Lancelot.
But try to be nice to me, anyway. Read some poetry.

LANCELOT.
( takes a book from the table, and reads )–

“It needs no maxims drawn from Socrates
To tell me this is madness in my blood–“

He pauses. She looks up inquiringly. Presently he goes on reading–

“Nor does what wisdom I have learned from these
Serve to abate my most unreasoned mood.
What would I of you? What gift could you bring,
That to await you in the common street
Sets all my secret ecstasy a-wing
Into wild regions of sublime retreat?
And if you come, you will speak common words–“

He stops, and flings the book across the room. She looks up.

GUENEVERE.
Don’t you like it?

LANCELOT.
( gloomily )

Hell! That’s too true.

GUENEVERE.
Try something else.

LANCELOT.
No–I can’t read.

( Guenevere bends to her darning.)

Shall I go?

GUENEVERE.
No.

LANCELOT.
Do you enjoy seeing me suffer?

GUENEVERE.
Does talking to me make you suffer?

LANCELOT.
Yes.

GUENEVERE.
I’m sorry.

LANCELOT.
Then let me go.

GUENEVERE.
No. Sit there and talk to me, like a rational human being.

LANCELOT.
I’m not a rational human being. I’m a fool. A crazy fool.

GUENEVERE.
( smiling at him )

I like crazy fools.

LANCELOT.
( desperately, rising as he speaks )

I am going to be married.

GUENEVERE.
( in a mocking simulation of surprise

)