0.1 riding wand a straight, slender stick used as a crop for horses. The props economically indicate that the kings are on a journey as a consequence of information in their letters. To increase the humour arising the king's urgency, the SQM actors burst onto the stage with great energy.
[[ Resource not found ]] Read more about performing Cornwall and Cambria and access video of the SQM production. PC. 3 twenty thousand miles; [[ Resource not found ]] The text later indicates that Cambria "looks at the letter" (TLN 410) when he enters the scene, and although the same is not indicated in the text here, the SQM Cornwall (Gray) also perused his letter following his entrance. The action indicated the cause of his impatience and emphasized the mirroring of the action that is central to the scene's dramaturgical conception. Read more about performing Cornwall and Cambria and access video of the SQM production. PC. 5 [To himself] [[ Resource not found ]]In the SQM production, Cornwall's servant (Kynaston) directed his complaint directly to the audience. The company worked from the assumption that soliloquies and asides were all delivered to the audience rather than in a self-reflective manner. In fact, the company was encouraged to turn as many of their lines out to the audience as possible. The stage direction here that is found in the original quarto edition challenges our assumption and suggests at least that asides could be perceived as internally directed. Directing the lines at the audience in our production, however, helped generate a comic dynamic for this scene. Read more about the Comic Servants and access video of the SQM production. PC. 5 ride alone for me. ride alone without me 8 gratified requited. 9 [He looks at the letter.] [[ Resource not found ]]The SQM Cambria used the first part of this line to burst on stage and then drew out his letter. The original stage direction appears in the margin and it is unclear exactly when the playwright expected the actor to open the letter. Read more about performing Cornwall and Cambria and access video of the SQM production. PC. 10 forbear endure or tolerate. 13 [To himself] [[ Resource not found ]]Cambria's servant (Borg) directed his complaint directly to the audience. The company worked from the assumption that soliloquies and asides were all delivered to the audience rather than in a self-reflective manner. In fact, the company was encouraged to turn as many of their lines out to the audience as possible. The stage direction here that is found in the original quarto edition challenges our assumption and suggests at least that asides could be perceived as internally directed. Directing the lines at the audience in our production, however, helped generate a comic dynamic for this scene. Read more about the Comic Servants and access video of the SQM production. PC. 15 Daedalus' waxen wings Daedalus was a skilled craftsman and inventor in Greek mythology. To escape imprisonment by King Minos on the island of Crete, Daedalus built wings from wax, feathers, and string for himself and for his son, Icarus. After ignoring his father's advice and flying close to the sun, the wax of Icarus' wings melted, causing them to fall apart and causing him to fall to his death. Ovid tells the story of Icarus and Daedalus in Metamorphoses, Book VIII (http://classics.mit.edu/Ovid/metam.8.eighth.html). 17 Troynovant, London, or "New Troy". Though the story had been debunked by early modern historiographers, many early modern poets such as Edmund Spenser and Anthony Munday and Thomas Dekker -- following earlier historiographers -- imagined that London was the cultural heir of Troy and classical Rome. According to apocryphal historical accounts, London was founded by Roman Brute, an heir of Aeneas, so the city occupied a place within an imagined translatio imperii. See Spenser's Faerie Queene, for instance, where the speaker claims that "noble Britons sprang from Trojans bold, / And Troynovant was built of Troyes' ashes cold" (3.9.38); see also Munday's The Triumphes of Re-United Britannia, which features Brute as a significant character (http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/16century/topic_4/munday.htm ); see also Dekker's Troia-Nova Triumphans, a civic pageant based entirely on the myth of London's Trojan inheritance (http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/toc.php?id=TROI1&searchterm= ). Though Leir in Leir seems -- by this allusion -- to locate his court at London, the "historical" Leir was most frequently associated not with London but with Leicester. This association between the monarch's court and the city of London would not become particularly close until the Tudor reign, particularly under Elizabeth. 18 and me. [[ Resource not found ]] Cambria's servant takes more pains to articulate his frustrations and following his lines we added a piece of comic business, having the actor slump to the ground exhausted. Read more about the Comic Servants and access video of the SQM production. PC. 18.1 start to see each other [[ Resource not found ]] The stage direction suggests a classic, comic double take and was key to deciphering the tone of the scene in rehearsal. Read more about Queen's Men Dramaturgy: Medley Style and access video of the SQM production. PC. 21 in happy time. fortuitously or by luck, but also a colloquial greeting like "Good to run into you." 24 No doubt [[ Resource not found ]]Surprised at their unexpected meeting as indicated by the previous stage direction, the two SQM kings surveyed each other suspiciously, trying to deduce the other's purpose. Read more about performing Cornwall and Cambria and access video of the SQM production. PC. 25 slenderly accompanied. without many attendants. 30 brook delays, suffer delays 31 Tell you your reason, I will tell you mine. "If you tell me why you're here, then I'll tell you why I'm here." [[ Resource not found ]]The SQM kings played on the childishness implied here and gave their characters a romantic naivety. Read more about performing Cornwall and Cambria and access video of the SQM production. PC. 38 moiety portion. 38 regiment. magisterial authority; in this case, territory and its associated rights. 42 we must brothers call. "We must call each other brother (in law)". [[ Resource not found ]] The extreme coincidence of their meeting and their mirrored purpose was funny but the SQM actors played it with a level of naivety that allowed the audience to laugh with them rather than at the artificiality of the plotting. Read more about performing Cornwall and Cambria and access video of the SQM production. PC. 46 seigniories, the territories and revenues under the dominion of a lord or, in this case, king 48 the third part, one-third, rather than one-half, of Leir's kingdom. 48 complements attributes. 51 The hole! Cambria absurdly misconstrues Cornwall's "whole" for "hole," meaning vagina. According to the logic of this mishearing, Cambria seems to imagine that he and Cornwall will marry two sisters but will share a single vagina. Compare with Ragan's similar bawdy mis-hearing (TLN 491). [[ Resource not found ]] This double entendre helped the SQM company find the tone for this scene. Read more about Queen's Men Dramaturgy: Medley Style and access video of the SQM production. PC. 51 'Sblood, an oath; abbreviated from "by God's blood," in reference to Christ's wounds. 59-60 'Twere pity such . . . a cloister's wall; According to Reformers, to cloister oneself was to waste one's life by refusing to do God's work. See the similar sentiment in Midsummer Night's Dream where Theseus warns Hermia about "the livery of a nun": "For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd, / To live a barren sister all your life, / Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon" (F: 79-83). 61 howsoe'er, notwithstanding that. 64.1 Exeunt. [[ Resource not found ]]In the SQM production the two kings hurried off-stage, followed reluctantly by their two comic servants who hauled themselves to their feet and lumbered off after them. Read more about the Comic Servants and access video of the SQM production. PC.
The History of King Leir (Modern)
Scene 5
397.1[Scene 5] [Video Sc.5]
Enter the King of Cornwall and his man[, Servant 1,] booted and spurred; a riding wand and a letter in [Cornwall's] hand
400 Cornwall
But how far distant are we from the court?
Servant 1
Some twenty miles, my lord, or thereabouts.
Cornwall
It seemeth to me twenty thousand miles;
Yet hope I to be there within this hour.
Servant 1
[To himself] Then are you like to ride alone for me.
405I think my lord is weary of his life.
Cornwall
Sweet Gonorill, I long to see thy face,
Which hast so kindly gratified my love.
Enter the King of Cambria, booted and spurred with a wand and a letter, and his man[, Servant 2]
410Cambria
[He looks at the letter.] Get a fresh horse, for, by my soul I swear,
I am past patience longer to forbear
The wished sight of my beloved mistress,
Dear Ragan, stay and comfort of my life.
Servant 2
[To himself] Now what in God's name doth my lord intend?
415He thinks he ne'er shall come at's journey's end.
I would he had old Daedalus' waxen wings
That he might fly, so I might stay behind;
For ere we get to Troynovant, I see,
He quite will tire himself, his horse, and me.
420Cornwall and Cambria look one upon another and start to see each other there.
Cornwall
Brother of Cambria, we greet you well,
As one whom here we little did expect.
Cambria
Brother of Cornwall, met in happy time.
425I thought as much to have met with the Sultan of Persia
As to have met you in this place, my lord.
No doubt it is about some great affairs
That makes you here so slenderly accompanied.
Cornwall
To say the truth, my lord, it is no less.
430And, for your part, some hasty wind of chance
Hath blown you hither thus upon the sudden.
Cambria
My lord, to break off further circumstances,
For at this time I cannot brook delays,
Tell you your reason, I will tell you mine.
435Cornwall
In faith, content; and, therefore, to be brief,
For I am sure my haste's as great as yours:
I am sent for to come unto King Leir,
Who, by these present letters, promiseth
His eldest daughter, lovely Gonorill,
440To me in marriage and for present dowry
The moiety of half his regiment.
The lady's love I long ago possessed,
But until now I never had the father's.
Cambria
You tell me wonders, yet I will relate
445Strange news, and henceforth we must brothers call.
Witness these lines: his honorable age,
Being weary of the troubles of his crown,
His princely daughter Ragan will bestow
On me in marriage, with half his seigniories,
450Whom I would gladly have accepted of
With the third part, her complements are such.
Cornwall
If I have one half and you have the other,
Then between us we must needs have the whole.
Cambria
The hole! How mean you that? 'Sblood, I hope
455We shall have two holes between us.
Cornwall
Why, the whole kingdom.
Cambria
Ay, that's very true.
Cornwall
What then is left for his third daughter's dowry,
Lovely Cordella, whom the world admires?
460Cambria
'Tis very strange. I know not what to think,
Unless they mean to make a nun of her.
Cornwall
'Twere pity such rare beauty should be hid
Within the compass of a cloister's wall;
But, howsoe'er, if Leir's words prove true,
465It will be good, my lord, for me and you.
Cambria
Then let us haste, all danger to prevent,
For fear delays do alter his intent.
Exeunt.

The History of King Leir (Modern)