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.
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