Don Carlos (Act 2 Scene 11)

PRINCESS, DOMINGO.

DOMINGO.
At your command, princess.

PRINCESS.
We are perhaps
Not quite alone?
[Looking inquisitively after the DUKE.
You have, as I observe,
A witness still by you.

DOMINGO.
How?

PRINCESS.
Who was he,
That left your side but now?

DOMINGO.
It was Duke ALVA.
Most gracious princess, he requests you will
Admit him to an audience after me.

PRINCESS.
Duke Alva! How? What can he want with me?
You can, perhaps, inform me?

DOMINGO.
I?—and that
Before I learn to what important chance
I owe the favor, long denied, to stand
Before the Princess Eboli once more?
[Pauses awaiting her answer.
Has any circumstance occurred at last
To favor the king's wishes? Have my hopes
Been not in vain, that more deliberate thought
Would reconcile you to an offer which
Caprice alone and waywardness could spurn?
I seek your presence full of expectation——

PRINCESS.
Was my last answer to the king conveyed?

DOMINGO.
I have delayed to inflict this mortal wound.
There still is time, it rests with you, princess,
To mitigate its rigor.

PRINCESS.
Tell the king
That I expect him.

DOMINGO.
May I, lovely princess,
Indeed accept this as your true reply?

PRINCESS.
I do not jest. By heaven, you make me tremble
What have I done to make e'en you grow pale?

DOMINGO.
Nay, lady, this surprise—so sudden—I
Can scarcely comprehend it.

PRINCESS.
Reverend sir!
You shall not comprehend it. Not for all
The world would I you comprehended it.
Enough for you it is so—spare yourself
The trouble to investigate in thought,
Whose eloquence hath wrought this wondrous change.
But for your comfort let me add, you have
No hand in this misdeed,—nor has the church.
Although you've proved that cases might arise
Wherein the church, to gain some noble end,
Might use the persons of her youthful daughters!
Such reasonings move not me; such motives, pure,
Right reverend sir, are far too high for me.

DOMINGO.
When they become superfluous, your grace,
I willingly retract them.

PRINCESS.
Seek the king,
And ask him as from me, that he will not
Mistake me in this business. What I have been
That am I still. 'Tis but the course of things
Has changed. When I in anger spurned his suit,
I deemed him truly happy in possessing
Earth's fairest queen. I thought his faithful wife
Deserved my sacrifice. I thought so then,
But now I'm undeceived.

DOMINGO.
Princess, go on!
I hear it all—we understand each other.

PRINCESS.
Enough. She is found out. I will not spare her.
The hypocrite's unmasked!—She has deceived
The king, all Spain, and me. She loves, I know
She loves! I can bring proofs that will make you tremble.
The king has been deceived—but he shall not,
By heaven, go unrevenged! The saintly mask
Of pure and superhuman self-denial
I'll tear from her deceitful brow, that all
May see the forehead of the shameless sinner.
'Twill cost me dear, but here my triumph lies,
That it will cost her infinitely more.

DOMINGO.
Now all is ripe, let me call in the duke.

[Goes out.

PRINCESS
(astonished).
What means all this?