[The scene is a bedchamber in a one-storied house. The walls consist ofa few courses of huge irregular boulders roughly squared and fittedtogether; a thatched roof rises steeply from the back wall. In thecentre of the back wall is a doorway opening on a garden and covered bytwo leather curtains; the chamber is partially hung with similarhangings stitched with bright wools. There is a small window on eachside of this door.Toward the front a bed stands with its head against the right wall; ithas thin leather curtains hung by thongs and drawn back. Farther forwarda rich robe and a crown hang on a peg in the same wall. There is asecond door beyond the bed, and between this and the bed's head stands asmall table with a bronze lamp and a bronze cup on it. Queen HYGD, anemaciated woman, is asleep in the bed; her plenteous black hair, veinedwith silver, spreads over the pillow. Her waiting-woman, MERRYN,middle-aged and hard-featured, sits watching her in a chair on thefarther side of the bed. The light of early morning fills the room.]Merryn: Many, many must die who long to live, Yet this one cannot die who longs to die: Even her sleep, come now at last, thwarts death, Although sleep lures us all half way to death ... I could not sit beside her every night If I believed that I might suffer so: I am sure I am not made to be diseased, I feel there is no malady can touch me-- Save the red cancer, growing where it will.[Taking her beads from her girdle, she kneels at the foot of the bed.] O sweet Saint Cleer, and sweet Saint Elid too, Shield me from rooting cancers and from madness: Shield me from sudden death, worse than two death-beds; Let me not lie like this unwanted queen, Yet let my time come not ere I am ready-- Grant space enow to relish the watchers' tears And give my clothes away and calm my features And streek my limbs according to my will, Not the hard will of fumbling corpse