Patricia

PATRICIA
What glorious day this is, oh my
How sweet do the birds above sing?
I pick my flowers to form a garland;
What hope will this spring bring?

EANA
Madam wishes me to inform thee that thy suitors are here presently.

PATRICIA
Oh Eana! What dost thou thinkst of the suitors come?

EANA
I did not see them, milady, I apologise. Please return presently before Madam fulminates.

PATRICIA
`Fulminate'? My dear Eana, how has thy language improve so much? Thou hardly readst, always working, yet thou uses such words!

EANA
The words, milday, are not mine. Madam told me before what to say. Please, milady, take madam's missive and return, or else her wrath be on me.

PATRICIA
My mother she be looking for suitors for me
Nary a day passes where she speaks not of them!
As though my life is nothing more than
To meet, to marry, to mother.
O how I wish I were not born of my sex
To be released from this misery
Of inflicted matrimony.
But mother never listens to what I say
Never letting me have my way
But what is a girl like me to do?