Described about the selfsame centre still. 
             Such sickness have we, then, but now passed through;
             And saying we, I mean that thou as well
             Art not a stranger to such inner growth. 
             Let’s not, unheeding, pass the warning by! 
             In future let us live as kings should live—­
             For kings we are.  Nor let us shut ourselves
             From out this world, and all that’s good and great;
             And like the bees which, at each close of day,
             Return unto their hives with lading sweet,
             So much the richer by their daily gain,
             We’ll find within the circle of our home,
             Through hours of deprivation, added sweets.

QUEEN.  If thou desirest, yes; for me, I miss them not.

KING.  But thou wilt miss them then in retrospect,
             When thou hast that whereby one judges worth. 
             But let us now forget what’s past and gone! 
             I like it not, when starting on a course,
             By any hindrance thus to bar the way
             With rubbish from an earlier estate. 
             I do absolve myself from all my sins. 
             Thou hast no need—­thou, in thy purity!

QUEEN.  Not so!  Not so!  My husband, if thou knew’st
             What black and mischief-bringing thoughts have found
             Their way into my sad and trembling heart!

KING.  Perhaps of vengeance?  Why, so much the better! 
             Thou feel’st the human duty to forgive,
             And know’st that e’en the best of us may err. 
             We will not punish, nor avenge ourselves;
             For she, believe me, she is guiltless quite,
             As common grossness or vain weakness is,
             Which merely struggles not, but limply yields. 
             I only bear the guilt, myself alone.

QUEEN.  Let me believe what keeps and comforts me
             The Moorish folk, and all that like them are,
             Do practise secret and nefarious arts,
             With pictures, signs and sayings, evil draughts,
             Which turn a mortal’s heart within his breast,
             And make his will obedient to their own.

KING.  Magic devices round about us are,
             But we are the magicians, we ourselves. 
             That which is far removed, a thought brings near;
             What we have scorned, another time seems fair;
             And in this world so full of miracles,
             We are the greatest miracle ourselves!

QUEEN.  She has thy picture!

KING.  And she shall return ’t,
             In full view I shall nail it to the wall,
             And for my children’s children write beneath: 
             A King, who, not so evil in himself,
             Hath once forgot his office and his duty. 
             Thank God that he did find himself again.