SHAKESPEARE. Coward! They see the sun Though they die seeing, and the wider view, The vast horizons, the amazing skies Undreamed before. ANNE. I cannot see so far. I want my little loves, I want my home. My life is rooted up, my prop is gone, And like a vine I lie upon the ground, Muddied and broken. SHAKESPEARE. I could be sorry for you Under the heavy hand of God or man But your own hand has slain yourself and me. Woman, the shame of it, to trap me thus, Knowing I never loved you! ANNE. Oh, for a month-- In the spring, in the long grass, under the apple-trees-- SHAKESPEARE. I never loved you. ANNE. Think, when I hurt my hand With the wild rose, it was then you said “Dear Anne!” SHAKESPEARE. I have forgotten. ANNE. On Midsummer Eve-- There was a dream about a wood you told me, Me--not another-- SHAKESPEARE. I was drunk with dreams That night. ANNE. That night, that night you loved me, Will! Oh, never look at me and say--that night, Under the holy moon, there was no love! SHAKESPEARE. You knew it was not love. ANNE. O God, I knew, And would not know! You never came again. I hoped, I prayed. I hoped. I loved you so. You never came. And must I go to you? I was ashamed. Yet in the wood I waited, waited, Will, Night after night I waited, waited, Will, Till shame itself was swallowed up in pain, In pain of waiting, and--I went to you. SHAKESPEARE. That lie upon those loving lips? ANNE. That lie. SHAKESPEARE. There was no child? ANNE. The hope, the hope of children, To bind you to me--a true hope to hold you-- No lie--a little lie--I loved you so-- Scarcely a lie--a promise to come true Of gifts between us and a love to come. SHAKESPEARE. You’re mad! You’re mad! ANNE. I was mad. I am sane. I am blind Samson, shaking down the house Of torment on myself as well as you. SHAKESPEARE. What gain was there? What gain?