CHARACTERS IN SCENE:
SOMMERS: Fool to the King of Albion, as well as one of his closest friends and confidants.
PRINCE: Prince of Medi, in love with Lia.
LIA: Princess of Albion.
BORS: King of Albion, Lia’s Father.
ATTENDANT 2: Attendant to the King of Albion.
KENT: A suitor to Princess Lia, chosen by her father.
Kitchen of Bors’ Castle—Storm cracks overhead
Enter Sommers
Sommers: Ah good King, why must you persist with your talk of mountains? You are struck with a madness. Friends are enemies, fools are follies, daughters are dreadful, and strangers are sinister. I do not see the hope you put into the young Kent; he hath no need of fools, there is no wiseness in his egg. It is full of empty stories and blind hope. He shall’t cause pain for you yet, my king, and then what shall I do? Shall’t I tell your story or Kent’s? Shall’t I be honest or deceitful? These are factors that a fool must figure. There is much work to be done in future.
(Knock offstage)
Why who could that be? Surely another player for Princess’s hand has not stepped into the game. There are far too many players to account for already.
(Exit Sommers. Enter Sommers, Prince and Lia. Prince is carrying Lia who wears a bandage over her eyes)
Prince: It is okay now, fair girl. I hath returned you home. You will be better off here, away from the brutality of such men and the force of my kingdom. Please, do be. Please do.
Sommers: Who be this shivering wreck you drag into thine palace, boy? Is it… It could not be… Lia?
Lia: Sommers? My fool?
Sommers: It is. Lia, oh Princess Lia, what a twist in your story—one, even I, as a fool could not account for. The cat land has ruined you, has clawed and scratched you, has torn you away from your true form.
Lia: You are a fool, Sommers.
Sommers: I grant that is true, your highness, but I wish I were not at this time.
Lia: Fool?
Sommers: Yes, my fair princess?
Lia: Lovely fool. My sword. My Prince.
Sommers: I cans’t try to make thy a story with such characters.
Lia: There is no need. They have all already been writ. But, why has’t he fallen silent? My sword? He has left.
Prince: I have not.
Lia: You hear the thunder crack through the sky, my sword?
Prince: I do.
Lia: It is beautiful, is it not? Sound meeting sight.
Prince: It is.
Lia: Why, sword, your heart speaks so short. Is it torn?
Prince: It is dazed, ‘tis all.
Sommers: Do you wish me to seek out the king, your highness?
Lia: No formalities, fool. It does not become you.
Sommers: You are still Lia. You still dodge mine questioning.
Lia: It will worry him.
Prince: The king, he is your father?
Sommers: Why, what else would he be? Are you competing for my position as fool?
Prince: I am not, I am merely dazed.
Lia: And I am fool, for I did not tell you the truth. You are my Evangeline and I am your Stable-Boy.
Sommers: Your father’s madness has’t passed to you. I must away to find him.
(Exit Sommers)
Lia: I fear I have always been mad.
Prince: Why would you think that is so, Princess?
Lia: Oh, do not call me by that name. I have ne’er been happier than as the servant girl Lia.
Prince: But you are not. You are the Princess, so says my mind and soul.
Lia: But what of your heart? What am I to it?
Prince: It—It continues to be dazed.
Lia: Then, cure it. It should not be allowed to daze any longer—stuck between a dream and a reality as if there were only one choice to make. I am blinded and yet I can see far more than you are caring to show, Prince.
Prince: You call me Prince.
Lia: Why, what else am I to call you? Your father is king, as is mine. The madness has caught me in a snare of discontent. I struggle in reality and am lost to dreams and darkness.
Prince: You are thunder, Lia. You are shield. You are—you are the dream become reality. You should not fear any such pain. It is true that my heart is in a daze but that is only because I have realised that I have always been dazed in mind and soul. If anyone is to be mad, it is Prince.
Lia: You are not dazed, Prince. You are finally seeing clearly. As am I, despite my dreams and darkness.
Prince: Why is’t that you did not say of your title? You could have saved yourself great horrors done by my father.
Lia: I know it may sound as if I have caught the madness, as Sommers has already professed, but I liked to pin on the skin of a servant—to connect to those considered below me. It led me towards more truths than the entirety of my royal habit has led me to. I am mad, yes, but as Lia I could be fool with all the madness that I desired.
Prince: Your fool’s ways are most handsome.
Lia: Your sword is most sharp. Do not let it disappear.
(Enter Bors, Sommers and Attendant 2)
Bors: (crying) Lia, oh, my Lia. What has’t happened to you, my child? The Father has lost himself within his sheets and has crawled through into the cave of the mountains.
Lia: (crying) Father, I am sorry.
Bors: You need not be. It is the mountain that throws shade upon the hill.
Lia: It is the hill that hides behind the might of the mountain.
Bors: My diamond, my jewel in the crown. How is it possible that they have gone from your face?
Lia: They are not gone, father. They ne’r had the chance to escape their dark encasement. This is right. This is how they have always been.
Bors: Who has’t done this to you, my Lia, my lovely Lia?
Sommers: She comes with the fool of Medi, your highness.
Bors: The fool of Medi? What do you do with a fool of Medi’s? (looks up at Prince) You—you are Prince, Medi’s face shines in your own—or, no, your eyes speak that of your mother.
Lia: He is my Evangeline.
Prince: I am fool, your highness, as much as you proclaim me as Prince. If t’were not for me then your child be safe in your arms, instead of this woman lying here now.
Bors: You hurt my child? Why, why would you do such things? Call all knights, Sommers. Attend to him. Oh, my child, my child. Lock the offender up. Treat him as he treat my daughter’s eyes. Lia, oh, Lia.
Lia: No, father, I beg of you, do not harm the sword. It is not he that has offended you.
Attendant 2: My king, do you wish for me to fetch Kent?
Bors: There is no need, oh, no need. She is gone.
Prince: No, your highness, you are wrong. Your daughter has ne’r left. She has remained wise, and foolish, and a shield to my stupidity. She is as brave as a king, as wise a queen, as loyal a storm. I fear that it is I that have been lost, for it is only now that I realise the faults of my father. It is only now that I choose to act.
Sommers: The King of Medi has’t done this to thy Princess? Of all of the stories I could have imagined, I could have never believed his whiskered cheeks and fiery eyes could be so cruel.
Bors: Is’t this true, my lovely, lovely girl? My friend has’t taken it upon him to take my princess and then the eyes I so adored away from me?
Lia: He takes eyes from Lia, father. He did not know of my title. I am fool.
Prince: It need not matter your title. It does not matter to Prince, it should not matter to father. I have been silenced by my father for too long, and I have had no reason other than wishing to stay in blissful ignorance. I must go back. I must right the wrongs my father has thrust upon my people.
Bors: I will be sure to avenge you, my child. I will avenge your eyes by tearing everything from Medi’s sight. I will let him finally see what you cannot see anymore.
Lia: Oh no, father, do not. War is made in old thoughts, not in new dreams. I am fool. I am not worth war.
Prince: I cannot think of anyone more worthy of war, my shield.
Sommers: The Fool is always the hidden one.
The Fool looks towards the sun.
The Fool belongs to everyone.
The Fool is worth what will be done.
You are worth all of the strength of fools, my fair Princess Lia. You deserve serious acts and speech, as you are the Queen of all fools—and the true heart of us all.
Lia: Oh, do not say such things.
Sommers: I must, as I am fool and storyteller. You shall’t be the truest truth of the tale, whether blind or all-seeing—though, I believe that now, you are both.
Bors: I shall’t fight for your eyes, my child.
Prince: I shall’t fight for your heart, my shield.
Attendant 2: I shall’t fight to, if you grant me, your majesty. I shall’t fight for your dreams and your joy. You have always brought that to this palace, my Princess.
Sommers: I shall not fight, but I shall witness—and I shall inspire truth for you, troublesome Lia.
Lia: No. Do not. I do not wish for war, as I cannot see it. I cannot see it.
(Enter Kent)
Kent: Your majesty, we have reports of a movement to the west of the palace. Medi is attacking, sire. The kingdom is turning ‘gainst you and your lands.
Attendant 2: But, if using the information they have already gathered about our subjects, your majesty, if I may jest, they shall destroy all that you have.
Bors: No, they shall have no more from me than myself. We shall’t go and face them. I am a boy no more, innocence is lost, and Medi has sought to destroy the only innocence we have left. He shall pay in blood and spirits.
Prince: (aside) As much as I detest my father at this time, I am still his son. I need go and make him stand trial for his actions. He is my problem to deal with, and Lia wishes for war as little as I truly do. His life shall be under my control, not Lia’s father’s .
(Exit Prince)
Lia: Father, do not, I beseech you. I am mad. I am fool. I am lost. As is Medi. He must be given a fair trial. He is your oldest friend, he deserves that much.
Bors: But, after what he hath done to thy face, he deserves no mercy.
Lia: Please, father, I am optimistic. The independent is still there, as is Arthur— they are to be trusted. They are to be loved. If you indeed love me as much as you profess speak to Medi, try to gain understanding and get both independent and Arthur to safety if he is found to be as evil as you believe.
Attendant 2: What do you wish, your majesty?
Bors: Kent—Sommers—speak.
Kent: He is attacking, my king. He seeks to destroy all.
Sommers: This is your decision, good king. There is no use in my words. True words have already touched upon your heart and changed the story.
Kent: Your daughter, she is hurt, my king. This is the fault of Medi. This is the fault of his kingdom.
Sommers: (aside) There speaks a man who knows experience for his age.
Attendant, what is’t you believe?
Attendant 2: I believe that Medi must be punished, fool. They have hurt our kingdom for far too long. They must be stopped.
Sommers: Yes, you and Kent are much alike.
Lia: Father, please. For the sake of my Evangeline. Save my sword.
Bors: I shall. Come attendant. We shall form party to go to Medi. I cannot forgive such an act, but I can try to look for the dreams we have both lost sight of.
Attendant 2: Sire, I will away to get some knights for safety?
Bors: That is well, yes.
(Exit Attendant 2)
Kent.
Kent: Sire, if I may…
Bors: You may not. My heart is forever with my child. You shall stay with Lia, comfort her, stay close to her, protect her. You shall be her sword, shield and ear.
Kent: Yes, my king.
Bors: Sommers, help me to prepare speech. We must have plan of action, and there is nobody I trust more than my loving child or my loyal fool.
Sommers: Sire, the fool is at your service. The story will be told.
Bors: Fear not, my child, my lovely, lovely child. I shall be back, and I shall save the lives of all of the innocents we have left.
(Exeunt)
The Literary Onion 