Windsor Castle. QUEEN CHARLOTTE despondently walks down a hallway, until she hears two voices. She follows the voices to a partially-open door of KING GEORGE III's study. When she enters, she finds the PRINCE OF WALES and DUKE OF YORK sorting KING GEORGE III's jewelry and belongings.
QUEEN CHARLOTTE: [Growing angry] What are you doing in the King's study? Why are you rummaging through his drawers?
PRINCE OF WALES: I have taken it upon myself to put the King's jewelry, money, documents, and other possessions away for safe-keeping.
QUEEN CHARLOTTE: You should have informed me first!
PRINCE OF WALES: Your Majesty has no relevancy to this matter.
QUEEN CHARLOTTE: [Livid] I-
PRINCE OF WALES: I shall leave the items in the possession of Lord Thurlow, and there is nothing you can say to deter me from it.
QUEEN CHARLOTTE: You will not allow me any say at all?
PRINCE OF WALES: No.
DUKE OF YORK: George and I only mean to protect the King and his belongings.
QUEEN CHARLOTTE: [Astonished] And you defend him!
PRINCE OF WALES: [Knocks his walking-stick against the floor] Let Frederick alone! This should have been accomplished immediately after the King became mad!
QUEEN CHARLOTTE: How dare you call your father mad!
PRINCE OF WALES: He is mad! The King is a complete lunatic, and anyone under the impression that he has any hope of recovery are no saner than he! Now, leave us. Frederick and I have much to do, and we wish to be undisturbed.
QUEEN CHARLOTTE: I think I should rather remain here and monitor your work.
PRINCE OF WALES: We are not in want of supervision, thank you. We are grown men, and are more than capable of completing our task in solitude.
QUEEN CHARLOTTE: [Sits stubbornly in a chair] I insist.
PRINCE OF WALES: [Rolls his eyes, muttering himself] Fine, fine. Sit all you like...
The PRINCE OF WALES and DUKE OF YORK continue organizing KING GEORGE III's belongings. QUEEN CHARLOTTE, feeling depressed and lonely, lets out a melancholic sigh as she gazed up at her husband's portrait. The PRINCE OF WALES hears it and is annoyed, but tries to ignore it. Then QUEEN CHARLOTTE sighs again, and the PRINCE OF WALES finally loses his patience.
PRINCE OF WALES: [Coldly] If it would please Your Majesty to quit sighing so loudly, I would be truly grateful.
QUEEN CHARLOTTE: I will sigh as loudly as I please! Oh, I am used so ill these days, and by my own children! If only I had the King by my side again!
PRINCE OF WALES: [Peevish] If you are in such severe and desperate want of His Majesty, why not relieve yourself of the agonizing loneliness of which you are afflicted and stay with him at Kew?
QUEEN CHARLOTTE: [Furious] I will go to Kew! You have made apparent your callousness and nonchalance regarding your father's health, and I shall endure it no more. No more! [She storms out while grumbling in German, and exits]
PRINCE OF WALES: [Haughty] Good riddance... I hardly know how she conjures those ridiculous notions. Nobody reveres the King more than I do.
Cut to ACT II, SCENE XXXXI.
YOU ARE READING
The Drunken Feathers
Historical FictionIn this biographical series that begins in 1784, twenty-one-year-old George, Prince of Wales-- the eldest son of King George III and heir to the British throne-- spends his youth idly by keeping countless mistresses, drinking profusely, and making f...
