Mad King 2

The Mad King at court, in full view of the dandies and pallid butlers, has insulted the Venetian ambassador. "I suggest, sir" he informs him, "that you have come to me in the guise of a grinning monkey. I shall send at once to the Treasury for a thousand florins stamped with the emblem of my arse. You may go."

The countess has put on facepaint. Her face aghast.

The King's stream-of-consciousness monologue continues interminably. Shadows lengthen from the high windows.

Dust collects in corners.

The King's son the Prince Regent was, as history has recorded, an extremely corpulent and vulgar man. Showed no signs of madness, but did demonstrate unbridled wastefulness, idleness, and stupidity.

His reaction to his father's insanity? A certain slow disgusted outjutting of jaw. Otherwise greedy for the old fella's throne.

Typical of the blighted sons of the house of Hanover. You can see it in the faces of Victoria and her successor. Heavy jowled and lidded, dull, obtuse, as if bludgeoned into pituitary insensibility by a lifetime of pampering and being grovelled at. Apparently the line is affected with some genetic malady probably caused by selective breeding.

As for the present Windsors, there's hardly a noble or majestic physigniomy among them. They're alternately heavy and ox-like or weedy and awkward specimens.

It seems the royal line has run right to seed.