To me now, were not my love and my revenge
Mix'd with it!—
Three tedious winters have I waited here,20
Like patient chemists, blowing still the coals,
And still expecting when the blessed hour
Would come, should make me master of
The Court Elixir, Power; for that turns all.
'Tis in projection now; down, sorrow, down,25
And swell my heart no more! and thou, wrong'd ghost
Of my dead father, to thy bed again,
And sleep securely!
It cannot be long,—for sure fate must,
As it has been cruel, so a while be just.[Exit30
Scene III
Enter King and Lords, the Lords entreating for prisoners
King. I say they shall not live: our mercy
Would turn [to] sin, should we but use it e'er.
Pity and love the bosses only be
Of government, merely for show and ornament.
Fear is the bit that man's proud will restrains,5
And makes its vice its virtue.—See it done.
Enter to them Queen, Aglaura, Ladies. The King addresses himself to Aglaura
So early and so curious in your dress, fair mistress?
These pretty ambushes and traps for hearts,
Set with such care to-day, look like design:
Speak, lady, is't a massacre resolv'd?10
Is conquering one by one grown tedious sport?
Or is the number of the taken such,
That for your safety you must kill outright?
Agl. Did none do greater mischief, sir, than I,
Heav'n would not much be troubled with sad story;15
Nor would the quarrel man has to the stars
Be ⟨kept⟩ alive so strongly.
King. When he does leave 't,
Woman must take it up, and justly too,
For robbing of the sex, and giving all to you.
Agl. Their weaknesses you mean and I confess, sir.20
King. The greatest subjects of their power or glory.
