Page 1233 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

God’s wrong is most of all:
If thou didst fear to break an oath with Him,
The unity the King my husband made
Thou hadst not broken, nor my brothers died; [380]
If thou hadst fear’d to break an oath by Him,
Th’imperial metal circling now thy head
Had grac’d the tender temples of my child,
And both the Princes had been breathing here,
Which now - two tender bed-fellows for dust - [385]
Thy broken faith hath made the prey for worms.
What can’st thou swear by now?

KING RICHARD

The time to come!

ELIZABET H

That thou hast wronged in the time o’erpast:
For I myself have many tears to wash
Hereafter time, for time past wrong’d by thee. [390]
The children live whose fathers thou hast slaughter’d:
Ungovern’d youth, to wail it in their age;
The parents live whose children thou hast butcher’d:
Old barren plants, to wail it with their age.
Swear not by time to come, for that thou hast [395]
Misus’d, ere us’d, by times ill-us’d o’erpast.

KING RICHARD

As I intend to prosper and repent,
So thrive I in my dangerous affairs
Of hostile arms! Myself myself confound!
God and fortune, bar me happy hours! [400]
Day, yield me not thy light, nor, night, thy rest!
Be opposite, all planets of good luck,
To my proceeding if with dear heart’s love,
Immaculate devotion, holy thoughts,
I tender not thy beauteous, princely daughter. [405]
In her consists my happiness and thine;
Without her follows to myself, and thee,
Herself, the land, and many a Christian soul,
Death, desolation, ruin, and decay.
It cannot be avoided but by this; [410]