Queen. Carlos, is't you? Oh, stop that royal flood;
Live, and possess your father's throne, when I
In dark and gloomy shades forgotten lie.
Don Car. Crowns are beneath me; I have higher pride:
Thus on you fixed, and dying by your side,
How much a life and empire I disdain!
No, we'll together mount, where both shall reign
Above all wrongs, and never more complain.
Queen. O matchless youth! O constancy divine!
Sure there was never love that equalled thine;
Nor any so unfortunate as mine.
Henceforth forsaken virgins shall in songs,
When they would ease their own, repeat thy wrongs;
And in remembrance of thee, for thy sake,
A solemn annual procession make;
In chaste devotion as fair pilgrims come,
With hyacinths and lilies deck thy tomb.
But one thing more, and then, vain world, adieu!
It is to reconcile my lord and you.
Don Car. He has done no wrong to me; I am possessed
Of all, beyond my expectation blest.
But yet methinks there's something in my heart
Tells me, I must not too unkindly part.—
Father, draw nearer, raise me with your hand;
Before I die, what is't you would command?
King. Why wert thou made so excellently good?
And why was it no sooner understood?
But I was cursed, and blindly led astray;
Oh! for thy father, for thy father pray.
Thou mayst ask that which I'm too vile to dare;
And leave me not tormented by despair.
Don Car. Thus then with the remains of life we kneel.
[Don Carlos and the Queen sink out of their chairs and kneel.
May you be ever free from all that's ill!
Queen. And everlasting peace upon you dwell!
King. No more: this virtue's too divinely bright;
My darkened soul, too conversant with night,
Grows blind, and overcome with too much light.
Here, raise them up—gently—ye slaves, down, down!
Ye glorious toils, a sceptre and a crown,
For ever be forgotten; in your stead,
Only eternal darkness wrap my head.