Time—The following evening.

[Enter Vashti and Esther from opposite sides of the stage.]

Esther

Ah, here already, Vashti, at my poor

Request, who dared defy a despot king's

Command to come before him and his lords?

[59]

Your beauty, radiant and spotless, grows

Each hour of exiled life more potent still

Than when it hurled an oriental crown,

With all its flashing jewels, in the face

Of brutal Xerxes rather than unveil

Unto a drunken court of lustful eyes.

Uncrowned, deposed, you are, yet thrice a queen!

Vashti

The sting, the sting of your envenomed words!

Esther

Forgive me, dear, I do not mock your fate;

No word of mine is spoke in scorn. I would

Exchange the royal robe and crown I wear

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