SHAKESPEAR. Flatteries! _[Kneeling]_ Oh, madam, I put my case at your royal feet. I confess to much. I have a rude tongue: I am unmannerly: I blaspheme against the holiness of anointed royalty; but oh, my royal mistress, AM I a flatterer?
ELIZABETH. I absolve you as to that. You are far too plain a dealer to please me. _[He rises gratefully]._THE DARK LADY. Madam: he is flattering you even as he speaks.
ELIZABETH._[a terrible flash in her eye]_Ha!Is it so?
SHAKESPEAR. Madam: she is jealous; and, heaven help me! not without reason. Oh, you say you are a merciful prince; but that was cruel of you, that hiding of your royal dignity when you found me here. For how can I ever be content with this black-haired, black-eyed, black-avised devil again now that I have looked upon real beauty and real majesty?
THE DARK LADY. _[wounded and desperate]_ He hath swore to me ten times over that the day shall come in England when black women, for all their foulness, shall be more thought on than fair ones. _[To Shakespear, scolding at him]_ Deny it if thou canst. Oh, he is compact of lies and scorns. I am tired of being tossed up to heaven and dragged down to hell at every whim that takes him. I am ashamed to my very soul that I have abased myself to love one that my father would not havedeemed fit to hold my stirrup--one that will talk to all the world about me--that will put my love and my shame into his plays and make me blush for myself there--that will write sonnets about me that no man of gentle strain would put his hand to. I am all disordered: I know not what I am saying to your Majesty: I am of all ladies most deject and wretched--SHAKESPEAR. Ha! At last sorrow hath struck a note of music out of thee. "Of all ladies most deject and wretched." _[He makes a note of it]._THE DARK LADY.Madam: I implore you give me leave to go. I am distracted with grief and shame. I--ELIZABETH. Go _[The Dark Lady tries to kiss her hand]._ No more. Go. _[The Dark Lady goes, convulsed]._ You have been cruel to that poor fond wretch, Master Shakespear.
SHAKESPEAR. I am not truel, madam; but you know the fable of Jupiter and Semele. I could not help my lightnings scorching her.
ELIZABETH. You have an overweening conceit of yourself, sir, that displeases your Queen.
SHAKESPEAR. Oh, madam, can I go about with the modest cough of a minor poet, belittling my inspiration and making the mightiest wonder of your reign a thing of nought? I have said that "not marble nor the gilded monuments of princes shall outlive" the words with which I make the world glorious or foolish at my will. Besides, I would have you think me great enough to grant me a boon.
ELIZABETH. I hope it is a boon that may be asked of a virgin Queen without offence, sir. I mistrust your forwardness; and I bid you remember that I do not suffer persons of your degree (if I may say so without offence to your father the alderman) to presume too far.
SHAKESPEAR. Oh, madam, I shall not forget myself again; though by my life, could I make you a serving wench, neither a queen nor a virgin should you be for so much longer as a flash of lightning might take to cross the river to the Bankside. But since you are a queen and will none of me, nor of Philip of Spain, nor of any other mortal man, I must een contain myself as best I may, and ask you only for a boon of State.
ELIZABETH.A boon of State already!You are becoming acourtier like the rest of them.You lack advancement.
SHAKESPEAR."Lack advancement."By your Majesty's leave: a queenly phrase. _[He is about to write it down]._ELIZABETH. _[striking the tablets from his hand]_ Your tables begin to anger me, sir. I am not here to write your plays for you.
SHAKESPEAR. You are here to inspire them, madam. For this, among the rest, were you ordained. But the boon I crave is that you do endow a great playhouse, or, if I may make bold to coin a scholarly name for it, a National Theatre, for the better instruction and gracing of your Majesty's subjects.
ELIZABETH. Why, sir, are there not theatres enow on the Bankside and in Blackfriars?
