The petty rebel, dull-brain'd Buckingham,
Bound with triumphant garlands will I come
And lead thy daughter to a conqueror's bed;
To whom I will retail my conquest won,
And she shall be sole victress, Caesar's Caesar.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
What were I best to say? her father's brother
Would be her lord? or shall I say, her uncle?
Or, he that slew her brothers and her uncles?
Under what title shall I woo for thee,
That God, the law, my honour and her love,
Can make seem pleasing to her tender years?
KING RICHARD III
Infer fair England's peace by this alliance.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Which she shall purchase with still lasting war.
KING RICHARD III
Say that the king, which may command, entreats.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
That at her hands which the king's King forbids.
KING RICHARD III
Say, she shall be a high and mighty queen.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
To wail the tide, as her mother doth.
KING RICHARD III
Say, I will love her everlastingly.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
But how long shall that title 'ever' last?
KING RICHARD III
Sweetly in force unto her fair life's end.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
But how long fairly shall her sweet lie last?
KING RICHARD III
So long as heaven and nature lengthens it.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
So long as hell and Richard likes of it.
KING RICHARD III
Say, I, her sovereign, am her subject love.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
But she, your subject, loathes such sovereignty.
KING RICHARD III
Be eloquent in my behalf to her.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
An honest tale speeds best being plainly told.
KING RICHARD III
Then in plain terms tell her my loving tale.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Plain and not honest is too harsh a style.
KING RICHARD III
Your reasons are too shallow and too quick.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
O no, my reasons are too deep and dead;
Too deep and dead, poor infants, in their grave.
KING RICHARD III
Harp not on that string, madam; that is past.
QUEEN ELIZABETH