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zoe
Before you’re twice married and once a widower.
bloom
Lapses are condoned. Even the great Napoleon, when measurements were taken near the skin after his death…
(Mrs Dignam, widow woman, her snubnose and cheeks flushed with deathtalk, fears and Tunny’s tawny sherry, hurries by in her weeds, her bonnet awry, rouging and powdering her cheeks, lips and nose a pen chivvying her brood of cygnets. Beneath her skirt appear her late husband’s everyday trousers and turnedup boots, large eights. She holds a Scottish widow’s insurance policy and large marqueeumbrella under which her brood runs with her, Patsy, hopping on one short foot, his collar loose, a hank of porksteaks dangling, Freddy whimpering, Susy with a crying cods’ mouth, Alice, struggling with the baby. She cuffs them on, her streamers flaunting aloft.)
freddy
Ah, ma, you’re dragging me along!
susy
Mamma, the beeftea is fizzing over!
shakespeare
(With paralytic rage.) Weda seca whokilla farst.
(The face of Martin Cunningham, bearded, refeatures Shakespeare’s beardless face. The marqueeumbrella sways drunkenly, the children run aside. Under the umbrella appears Mrs Cunningham in Merry Widow hat and kimono gown. She glides sidling and bowing, twisting japanesily.)
mrs cunningham
(Sings.)
And they call me the jewel of Asia.
martin cunningham
(Gazes on her impassive.) Immense! Most bloody awful demirep!
