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Richard was even better than she was. He did the "death of kings" speech from Richard II and the St. Crispin's Day speech from Henry V, and he really sounded like an orchestra, although he stumbled over an unbelievable number of lines. Oddly, he was at his best reading not Shakespeare but D. H. Lawrence—a poem called Snake, which is one of his favorites in all literature. But the high point of the evening came when he and Elizabeth read the 23rd Psalm. He would read a line in Welsh, then she would read a line in English, and they went through the whole psalm that way. The man with me said they sounded like a Paiute Indian and an acolyte, which surprised me, because I was really moved.
Elizabeth wore two gowns, both the same sort of Roman-matron style, one blue and the other white. She changed offstage. This was the first time she had ever faced a theater audience. She looks heavier than she does in movies but not nearly as old as she is. She is 32. She was beautiful, but not as beautiful as she is supposed to be, if you know what I mean. But how could anybody be that beautiful?
The evening was especially fun because there was so much pleasant banter between Richard and Elizabeth. Once she stopped a poem and said, "Sorry, may I start again? I got all screwed up."
"I could say that in Hamlet every night," said Richard.
After she finished reading one poem (near the beginning), he said, "I didn't know she was going to be this good." A little later, she said to the audience, "See—you did get something for your money." That said it for me, and it wasn't even my money.
Afterwards, outside in the street, the crowds were as big as they always are (the theater is the same one where Burton plays Hamlet), trying to glimpse Richard and Elizabeth. I read in the paper that Richard said it is a mystery to him why the crowds are there every night. "At first I thought the somewhat illicit quality of our relationship before we were married was bringing them," he told a reporter from the Times. "We assumed that once we were married it would stop."
At this point Elizabeth Taylor apparently popped in and said, "That doesn't have anything to do with it, darling. You're the one they're coming to see. You're the Frank Sinatra of Shakespeare."
"The what?" said Richard. "I said the Frank Sinatra of Shakespeare," said Elizabeth. "Oh come now," he said, "get ahold of yourself, luv."
All for now— Agnes P.S. I don't miss college one bit.