[Kneels, and kisses the Queen's hands.
Queen. O too unhappy Carlos! yet unkind!
'Gainst you what harms have ever I designed,
That you should with such violence decree
Ungratefully at last to murder me?
Don Car. Pour all thy curses, Heaven, upon this head,
For I've the worst of vengeance merited,
That yet I impudently live to hear
Myself upbraided of a wrong to her! [Rises.
Say, has your honour been by me betrayed?
Or have I snares to entrap your virtue laid?
Tell me; if not, why do you then upbraid?
Queen. You will not know the afflictions which you give;
Was't not my last request that you would live?
I by our vows conjured it; but I see,
Forgetting them, unmindful too of me,
Regardless, your own ruin you design,
Though you are sure to purchase it with mine.
Don Car. I, as you bade me live, obeyed with pride,
Though it was harder far than to have died.
But loss of liberty my life disdains;
These limbs were never made to suffer chains.
My father should have singled out some crown,
And bidden me go conquer it for my own:
He should have seen what Carlos would have done.
But to prescribe my freedom, sink me low
To base confinement, where no comforts flow,
But black despair, that foul tormentor, lies,
With all my present load of miseries,
Was to my soul too violent a smart,
And roused the sleeping lion in my heart.
Queen. Yet then be kind; your angry father's rage
I know the least submission will assuage;
You're hot with youth, he's choleric with age.
To him, and put a true obedience on;
Be humble, and express yourself a son.
Carlos, I beg it of you: will you not?
Don Car. Methinks 'tis very hard, but yet I'll do't.
I must obey whatever you prefer,
Knowing you're all divine, and cannot err.
For, if my doom's unalterable, I shall
This way at least with less dishonour fall;
And princes less my tameness thus condemn,
When I for you shall suffer, though by him.
Queen. In my apartment farther we'll debate
Of this, and for a happy issue wait.
Your presence there he cannot disapprove,
When it shall speak your duty, and my love.
[Exeunt Don Carlos, Queen, Henrietta, and Attendants.
Re-enter Ruy-Gomez.