Transcript
OLD GEORGE
Ahh, my young friends! Are you enjoying my pavilion.
ALFIE
Yes, your hugeness. It’s great!
BILLIE
Are you alright, your majesty? You don’t look very well.
OLD GEORGE
I’m not very well. It’s 1827 and my gout is intolerable.
ALFIE
What’s gout?
OLD GEORGE
It’s jolly painful, that’s what it is. It’s a bit like arthritis. I can barely walk. And my damned physicians tell me I eat too much.
BILLIE
You have put on rather a lot of weight.
OLD GEORGE
That’s because I can’t go riding any more. I can’t even dance. And I’ve lost a lot of people close to me. My mother, darling Charlotte my daughter, my brother Freddy… Even coming down to Brighton is agony.
ALFIE
That’s a pity.
OLD GEORGE
It is, isn’t it? Oh well, at least I still have all these wonderful objects to enjoy. Have you seen my Egyptian furniture? And the globes?
ALFIE
Why do you need two globes?
OLD GEORGE
Have a closer look.
BILLIE
They’re not the same!
OLD GEORGE
That’s right. One’s for the stars! You can see all the constellations.
ALFIE
They’ve been drawn in, so you can see how they connect.
OLD GEORGE
Now, if you wouldn’t mind, could you send any of my ministers lurking in the next room in? Thank you so much. Those grumbletonians won’t leave me in peace. And farewell for now!