Aylmere. Ay, marry will I! And why should I not?
Clifford. Thou durst not, carle.
Aylmere. Durst not!"
At the urgent solicitation of Mariamne, he spares the recreant noble; but, before letting him go, he utters this speech in a manner which appears to melt wonder, musing, scorn, and threatening into one simultaneous expression:
"Good Heaven! that such a worm, so abject, vile,
Should eat into the root of royalty,
And topple down whole centuries of empire!
I will not crush you, reptile, now: but mark me!
Steel knows no heraldry, and, stoutly urged,
Visits the heart of a peer with no more grace