William Shakespeare, KING CHARLES III, Act 1, Scene 1, #3

William Shakespeare, KING CHARLES III, Act 1, Scene 1, #3

EGUNGUN:

With what magic do you summon sleep to thine eyes, monarch? You head is heavy with looted goods from all the corners of the colonized world.

Doth thou ever find full slumber?

Sleep no more, king.

Mere naps must be stranger to your brows.

KING CHARLES:

How do you mean? Talk plain to me.

EGUNGUN:

How true the account that thine State Chariot is made from Gold you pilfered off the people you named the Gold Coast?

KING CHARLES:

We built them train services, mind you, tactless phantom! Those peasant had never seen a train before!

EGUNGUN:

The railways lines you constructed, tell no lie, ran from your shipping docks to the mine sites of their Gold, Bauxite, Manganese and Diamond.

Thy national bank is filled with tons of stolen gold!

Have thee a single gold mine in the country you rule?

How come you have more gold than the whole of Africa put together?

KING CHARLES:

Prove we took from you a dime without due permission and signature of thine rulers and chiefs!

We possess papers lodged in our archives, if thou can read.

If I daresay, you must be but a blind illiterate.

Depart from my bed chambers, apparition.

Let me sleep now, before the hand of the clock strikes midnight.

EGUNGUN:

That which hath made you bold, hath made me shudder.

What giveth you fire, gives me concern.

Have you no atom of shame left in your vein?

Sleep no more, all that live in this chamber,

You have murdered sleep, and shall no more sleep nor slumber!

KING CHARLES:

Vile Apparition of garments and masks built

Leave alone my kingship and let me sleep

This anguish hath gone for far too long.

Declare what you seek, and we will consider redress.

(To be continued)

Picture shows me with my Egungun, Adìgbòlogun Ọkọ Ìyàwó