What were I best to say?

Queen Elizabeth
What were I best to say? Her father’s brother
Would be her lord? Or shall I say her uncle?
Or he that slew her brothers and her uncles?
Under what title shall I woo for thee,
That God, the law, my honor, and her love
Can make seem pleasing to her tender years?
Richard
Infer fair England’s peace by this alliance.
Queen Elizabeth
Which she shall purchase with still-lasting war.
Richard
Tell her the King, that may command, entreats—
Queen Elizabeth
That, at her hands, which the King’s King forbids.

Thy George, profaned, hath lost his lordly honor;
Thy Garter, blemished, pawned his knightly virtue;
Thy crown, usurped, disgraced his kingly glory.

Richard
Say she shall be a high and mighty queen.
Queen Elizabeth
To vail the title, as her mother doth.
Richard
Say I will love her everlastingly.
Queen Elizabeth
But how long shall that title “ever” last?
Richard
Sweetly in force unto her fair life’s end.
Queen Elizabeth
But how long fairly shall her sweet life last?
Richard
As long as heaven and nature lengthens it.
Queen Elizabeth
As long as hell and Richard likes of it.
Richard
Say I, her sovereign, am her subject low.
Queen Elizabeth
But she, your subject, loathes such sovereignty.
Richard
Be eloquent in my behalf to her.
Queen Elizabeth
An honest tale speeds best being plainly told.
Richard
Then plainly to her tell my loving tale.
Queen Elizabeth
Plain and not honest is too harsh a style.
Richard
Your reasons are too shallow and too quick.
Queen Elizabeth
O no, my reasons are too deep and dead—
Too deep and dead, poor infants, in their graves.
Richard
Harp not on that string, madam; that is past.
Queen Elizabeth
Harp on it still shall I till heart-strings break.
Richard
Now by my George, my Garter, and my crown—
Queen Elizabeth
Profaned, dishonored, and the third usurped.
Richard
I swear—
Queen Elizabeth
By nothing, for this is no oath.
Thy George, profaned, hath lost his lordly honor;
Thy Garter, blemished, pawned his knightly virtue;
Thy crown, usurped, disgraced his kingly glory.
If something thou wouldst swear to be believed,
Swear then by something that thou hast not wronged.
Richard
Then, by myself—
Queen Elizabeth
Thyself is self-misused.
Richard
Now, by the world—
Queen Elizabeth
’Tis full of thy foul wrongs.