Abides in me; I say amen to her. [Going. K. Rich. Stay, madam, I must speak a word with you. Q. Eliz. I have no more sons of the royal blood, For thee to murder for my daughters, Richard,They shall be praying nuns, not weeping queens ; And therefore level not to hit their lives. K. Rich. You have a daughter call'd-Elizabeth, Virtuous and fair, royal and gracious. Q. Eliz. And must she die for this? O, let her live, So she may live unscarr'd of bleeding slaughter, Q. Eliz. To save her life, I'll say-she is not so. posite. Q. Elix. No, to their lives bad friends were contrary. K. Rich. All unavoided is the doom of destiny. Q. Eliz. True, when avoided grace makes destiny: My babes were destin'd to a fairer death, If grace had bless'd thee with a fairer life. K. Rich. You speak, as if that I had slain my cousins. Q. Eliz. Cousins, indeed; and by their uncle cozen'd Of comfort, kingdom, kindred, freedom, life. No doubt the murderous knife was dull and blunt, But that still use of grief makes wild grief tame, + Constant. Unavoidable. My tongue should to thy ears not name my boys, K. Rich. Madam, so thrive I in my enterprize, Q. Eliz. What good is cover'd with the face of heaven, To be discover'd, that can do me good? K. Rich. The advancement of your children, géntle lady. Q. Eliz. Up to some scaffold, there to lose their heads? K. Rich. No, to the dignity and height of fortune, The high imperial type of this earth's glory*. Q. Eliz. Flatter my sorrows with report of it; Tell me, what state, what dignity, what honour, Canst thou demise † to any child of mine?.. K. Rich. Even all I have; ay, and myself and all, Will I withal endow a child of thine; So in the lethe of thy angry soul Thou drown the sad remembrance of those wrongs, Which, thou supposest, I have done to thee. Q. Eliz. Be brief, lest that the process of thy kindness Last longer telling than thy kindness' date. K. Rich. Then know, that, from my soul, I love thy daughter. Q. Eliz. My daughter's mother thinks it with her soul. K. Rich. What do you think? Q. Eliz. That thou dost love my daughter, from thy soul: So, from thy soul's love, didst thou love her brothers; And, from my heart's love, I do thank thee for it. K. Rich. Be not so hasty to confound my meaning; + Bequeath. * A crown. I mean, that with my soul I love thy daughter, Q. Eliz. Well then, who dost thou mean shall be her king? K. Rich. Even he, that makes her queen; Who else should be? Q. Eliz. What, thou? K. Rich. of it, madam? Q. Eliz. How canst thou woo her? K. Rich. Even so: What think you That I would learn of you,' Madam, with all my heart. As one being best acquainted with her humour. Q. Eliz. And wilt thou learn of me? K. Rich. Q. Eliz. Send to her, by the man that slew her brothers, A pair of bleeding hearts; thereon engrave, Tell her, thou mad'st away her uncle Clarence, Mad'st quick conveyance with her good aunt Anne. way To win your daughter. Q. Eliz. K. Rich. Say, that I did all this for love of her? Q. Eliz. Nay, then indeed, she cannot choose but have thee, Having bought love with such a bloody spoil. * Perhaps. K. Rich. Look, what is done cannot be now amended: Men shall deal unadvisedly sometimes, And all the ruins of distressful times Of ten-times-double gain of happiness. Of golden sov'reignty; acquaint the princess Q. Eliz. What were I best to say? her father's brother Would be her lord? Or shall I say, her uncle? That God, the law, my honour, and her love, K. Rich. Infer fair England's peace by this alliance. Q. Eliz. Which she shall purchase with still lasting war. K. Rich. Tell her, the king, that may command, entreats. Q. Eliz. That at her hands, which the king's King forbids*. K. Rich. Say, she shall be a high and mighty queen. Q. Eliz. To wail the title, as her mother doth. last? K. Rich. As long as Heaven, and nature, lengthens it. Q. Eliz. As long as hell, and Richard, likes of it. K. Rich. Say, I, her sovereign, am her subject low. Q. Eliz. But she, your subject, loaths stich sovereignty. K. Rich. Be eloquent in my behalf to her. Q. Eliz. An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told. VOL. VII. * In the Levitical law, chap. xviii. 44. |