THE DYNASTS ACT r
QUEEN I had no zeal to meet you, sire, alas!
NAPOLEON (after a silence) And how at Memel do you sport with time ?
QUEEN
Sport ? I!—I pore on musty chronicles, And muse on usurpations long forgot, And other historied dramas of high wrong!
NAPOLEON
Why con not annals of your own rich age ? They treasure acts well fit for pondering.
QUEEN
I am reminded too much of my age By having had to live in it. May Heaven Defend me now, and my wan ghost anon, From conning it again!
NAPOLEON
Alas, alas! Too grievous, this, for one who is yet a queen!
QUEEN
No ; I have cause for vials more of grief.— Prussia was blind in blazoning her power Against the Mage of Earth! . . . The embers of great Frederick's deeds inflamed her : His glories swelled her to her ruining. Too well has she been punished! (Emotion stops her.)
220