Page 868 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

CLARENCE

In choosing for yourself you showed your judgement
Which, being shallow, you shall give me leave
To play the broker in mine own behalf;
And to that end I shortly mind to leave you.

KING EDWARD

Leave me or tarry, Edward will be king [65]
And not be tied unto his brother’s will.

QUEEN ELIZABETH

My lords, before it pleased his majesty
To raise my state to title of a queen,
Do me but right, and you must all confess
That I was not ignoble of descent - [70]
And meaner than myself have had like fortune.
But as this title honours me and mine,
So your dislikes, to whom I would be pleasing,
Doth cloud my joys with danger and with sorrow.

KING EDWARD

My love, forbear to fawn upon their frowns: [75]
What danger or what sorrow can befall thee
So long as Edward is thy constant friend
And their true sovereign whom they must obey?
Nay, whom they shall obey, and love thee too,
Unless they seek for hatred at my hands; [80]
Which if they do, yet will I keep thee safe
And they shall feel the vengeance of my wrath.

GLOUCEST ER

[aside]
I hear, yet say not much but think the more.

Enter a Post.

KING EDWARD

Now, messenger, what letters, or what news
From France? [85]