Nobody was meant to know about Yorick’s romance. It was a rather illicit affair, what with him being the court jester and his damsel being the daughter of the esteemed Lord Chamberlain of the court. Indeed, the affair was so secret that only her lady’s fendersmith, Fiolin, knew. He was the one who passed on messages from Yorick, to be delivered to his love, when her fireplace was kindled in the evenings. And of course, her lady’s maid, Mary, knew too, as she delivered the love letters from his lady to Yorick in the mornings. The apothecary, Amos, was in on the secret too, given that he regularly had to dispense remedies for Madam, when she was literally sick with love. As was the horologist, who happened to be setting the clocks at the castle on a day that a mournful Yorick was in anguish over an argument between him and his love. Thank goodness he was on hand to provide immediate consolation.
Who was this damsel, who had captured our Yorick’s heart? What was it about her that made him so weak at the knees that sometimes he was at a loss as to how to entertain the king? If you asked Erik the ewerer, he would tell you it was her lady’s charming way of agreeing with everything Yorick said, and laughing at all his jokes – even the incomprehensible ones. Agnes, who chopped vegetables in the kitchen, opined that Yorick’s heart was truly lost to his damsel because she reminded him of his dear mother, who was a kind-natured, though insipid woman, whom Yorick held in high regard.
Yorick and his damsel spoke often about revealing their love to all, and moving to the countryside to live a life of subsistence farming, tending to cows, hens and goats while raising seven children. They dreamed of defying the establishment by openly declaring their love, and becoming an example to other inter-status couples. Not that it would ever happen…
But what Yorick didn’t know, was that Ophelia, his love, also held captive the heart of another. She had been trying to decide which one she loved more, and was leaning toward Yorick. Her other suitor was far too gloomy and sulky. It didn’t help her in the least that the two men were friends. Indeed, she fretted about this constantly, because she realised that in choosing one, not only was she hurting the other, but that the two would no longer be friends once the truth came out.
As it happens, the truth never did come out. On the night Ophelia had planned to reveal the truth to Yorick, and later in the evening to his rival in love, Hamlet, the two men had decided to dine together with friends at the castle, and neither was going to visit her. She’d heard from her father, who was at the castle attending to the King’s royal correspondence, what a raucous bunch they were, keeping the King and Queen awake with their noisy antics.
Indignant, though secretly pleased at how both men would have to grovel to once more be recipients of her favour, it was only later the next day that Ophelia found out that a tragic, untimely accident had ended Yorick’s life. Alas, poor Yorick, the lessor suitor who had made it to love’s door, was no more.
My 500 Words A Day 