As Epics Go, This One Is a Royal Mess : Monarchy: The saga of Charles and Diana has all the elements of Shakespeare--despair, devious courtiers and the whiff of infidelity. It’s anyone’s guess what the next act will bring.

Prince Charles’ life was surreal enough before he separated from his wife: His main function has been to wait for his mother to die so he can become King of England.

But now, to protect his destiny, he’s supposed to remain celibate while he waits.

Princess Diana, not exactly free to play the field herself, is said to have negotiated hard to ensure that the official separation announcement included the line about her remaining eligible to become queen. But it appears to have been a smoke screen and that a divorce, not a coronation, looms large for her.

Her duty will be to prepare young Prince William for his eventual ascension to the throne. The question is, will he get there before his father?

Yes, the Fairy Tale has ended. What we’re witnessing now is modern-day Shakespeare.

Royal despair, devious courtiers, the whiff of infidelity--it’s all there, played against a tense backdrop of diplomatic receptions, foreign sojourns and burning castles (OK, one burning castle).

True, the dialogue is not very good. The Royals speak only banalities in public, so there are few, if any, memorable lines in this drama. (Diana pronouncing her marriage “torture” during a secretly taped phone conversation with a male admirer who calls her “Squidgy” may be as remarkable as it gets.)

But, as with the best of the Bard, the audience is transfixed and wonders what the next act will bring.

As the scene changes to Christmas, the Royal Family will hear the sporadic patter of little feet. That will be the sound of royal grandchildren being shuttled between various holiday outposts where estranged members of the family will be holed up.

New family configurations mean that the children of both the Prince and Princess of Wales and of the Duke of York and his outcast wife, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, will have to remain mobile over Christmastime.

Diana is reportedly committed to spending at least one day and night with the Royal Family at their 20,000-acre estate at Sandringham--probably for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day lunch--so that Prince William, 10, and Prince Harry, 8, can see their grandparents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.

While at Sandringham, the princess is likely to stay at a house on the fringe of the estate, where Fergie will also be lying low with her daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie. Charles and Andrew will be up at the big house--doing what, we don’t know.

The Princess of Wales is likely to spend the remainder of the holidays at her brother’s 16th-Century country estate, which is set on 7,000 acres.

Once the festive season has passed, the reality of separation will really kick in for the Waleses, and the world will be watching to see how they organize and conduct their lives.

Diana will begin arranging her new life as a single mother from her home in Kensington Palace. Although she is expected to have more freedom to run around with her old Sloane Square crowd, a public dalliance would probably reduce her royal standing very quickly.

She will maintain an active schedule in support of various charities and causes but is unlikely to participate in many state functions, observers say.

Although Charles is planning to move in with his grandmother, the Queen Mum, at Clarence House in London and spend long periods at his country estate at Highgrove, it is thought that he may ultimately take an apartment at Buckingham Palace.

Palace spokesmen, meanwhile, say details have not been worked out over care of the young princes, who return to their exclusive boarding school after the holidays. But it appears likely that Diana will have primary custody.

The Prince of Wales has been chided by the British press for appearing to be an unsupportive father. Last year, he provoked outcries of horror when, just before Prince William was wheeled into surgery as a result of being whacked in the head by a pal wielding a golf club, Charles dashed from the hospital to attend the opera.

Ironically, Charles may wind up spending more time with his sons under formalized custody arrangements. He already has planned an Austrian ski vacation with them for March.

But sorting out palaces and custody of the children, as painful as it is, will probably be the easy part. Big question marks still hang over the issues that will affect the entire nation.

Will the prince and princess run competing courts? Could Diana be queen? Does Charles, at 44, really want to ascend to the throne when his time comes? And even if he does want to, will he be accepted by the masses, who did not appear to hold him in very high regard even before the separation?

A public opinion survey conducted for the British newspaper Sunday Express showed that 49% of respondents believe that Prince William should be the next king; 45% favor Prince Charles.

“The possibility of jumping a generation is becoming much more realistic,” says Mark Redhead, who recently produced a six-part British TV documentary on the monarchy. “It would be a shame for Charles. I’m sure he would hate not to be king.”

Opinion polls have long shown Princess Diana to be the most popular royal. It is that widespread support that accounts for much of her power within the Royal Family.

By some accounts, she has taken on the House of Windsor and won--retaining her title, her children, a palace, a staff and what is expected to be a sizable financial settlement.

But others believe that Diana may have lost more than she realizes.

“What (the Royal Family) has done, probably without (Diana) even knowing it, is remove all her political power,” says royal expert Harold Brooks-Baker, publishing director of Burke’s Peerage. He expects to see Diana barred from important state functions, visits with foreign dignitaries and other major duties of royal life.

“She thinks she has filled her suitcase with prizes of the Royal Family,” says Brooks-Baker. “But I think she will realize very soon that what she has is an empty suitcase.”

It has never been clear what the prince and princess want. And it doesn’t help that they don’t make public comments or entertain questions from the news media.

In the aftermath of the separation announcement, however, both Charles and Diana appear to be engineering press leaks designed to clarify their intentions.

The Express newspaper claimed that Charles “has pledged to succeed his mother” and “vowed never to marry again.” The paper said that “his declaration came in telephone calls to ministers close to 10 Downing Street,” residence of the prime minister.

Britain’s most prominent society gossip columnist, Nigel Dempster, wrote in the Mail on Sunday that Prince Charles is planning to divorce Diana in two years and that the princess will not obstruct the proceedings.

The columnist quoted a “close relative” of the princess as saying “Diana has no real interest in becoming queen. She sees her most important role as mother of the future King William and wishes to protect his path to the throne.”

Dempster also reported that “close friends (of Prince Charles) say he is quite prepared to live a life of celibacy to ensure no constitutional problems complicate his succession.”

A vow of sexual martyrdom. Plot twist.

If Shakespeare were writing this royal drama, the prince would be taking the stage now for his big soliloquy. And we would hear, in the most eloquent terms, how life ain’t easy for the man who would be king.