was looked upon suspiciously.

O did that make my blood boil.

It turned me into this tigress.

I didn’t see with my own eyes.

I didn’t hear with my own ears.

Unfounded hate but saw and heard,

ate, dreamt, performed, and slept for me.

I lay sadly upon my ear,

doing what it did. That’s in the past.

Hate now wants to love. And love hates

itself for not loving harder.

Why look, there comes the young Prince.

Go, kiss him, call him your precious.

Tell him I shall be nice to him

despite his bitter words spoken

in your favor. Go and tell him!

The Prince enters.

Prince:

Fair Queen, I’ve been looking for you.

Queen:

Fair? This is a polite greeting.

I do like you, Prince, Snow White’s half,

to whom you wish to be married.

Prince:

Snow White wants not to be my bride.

She says I’ve had a change of mind

since lifting her from the coffin

and leading her here. She is right

to blame it all on you, Queen. To you

I utterly devote myself.

Queen:

Where is this weak temperament,

which like a reed shakes back and forth

when the wind blows, going to take us?

Prince:

Where? I don’t really know where.

But this I know only too well,

that I am in love, and with whom?

With you, with the Queen that you are.

Queen:

Such love, ah, that doesn’t suit me.

This is too fast. Your behavior

I find perfectly juvenile.

Your mind is far too capricious,

your nature too rash. Have patience

and don’t tell me that you love me.

In fact, you need to be scolding me

still, Snow White’s half, she whom you seem

to rather carelessly forget.

Hey, Hunter.

Prince:

What of that villain?

Queen:

He’s no villain. In hunter’s clothes,

he equals ten thousand princes.

Don’t be a hothead. Think of who’s

present when you stir up your storm.

To the Hunter, who appears.

Oh, there you are.

Hunter:

What’s your bidding?

Queen:

As though it were real, reenact

that scene of Snow White’s distress

that she had in the forest here.

Do so as though you wished to kill.

You, girl, beg as though you mean it.

Me and the Prince, we will just watch

and critique if you play your roles

too lightly. Now then, let’s begin!

Hunter:

Snow White, come, I’m going to kill you.

Snow White:

Oh, like it happened that quickly.

First draw your dagger. I’m not scared

at all of your proud booming voice.

Why do you want to strangle me,

this life you see here, who never

caused you injury or insult?

Hunter:

The Queen hates you. She bid me here

to kill. Ferociously she drove

me to it with her sweet kisses.

Queen:

Ha, ha, with kisses, ha, ha, ha.

Snow White:

Is anything amiss, dear Queen?

Queen:

Nothing, play on. You’re doing just fine.

Prince:

The villain does the villain’s role

like second nature. It fits him