Pedro the Cruel
Maria.God gave thee better friends:
But thou hast suffered man to put them from thee.
Pedro. Whom speak'st thou of?
Maria.Thy brothers, oh my husband.
Alas, thy father's orphans have been wronged,
Because thy father loved them, and because
God hath exalted thee so far above them.
Pedro. So far as I was once abased beneath them.
I was my father's heir—they were his children.
They grew up in the sunshine—I in shadow.
My childhood's curse, my boyhood's bitterness,
Above all others was Enriquez' name.
Oft as my father showered fresh graces on him,
My mother tortured with her sighing pity,
And murmurs of despairing jealousy
The blushing agonies of my child's pride.
How would she prophesy o'er her victim boy
A thousand wrongs and perils from Enriquez,
And every lip around me echoed her.
If I offended in my waywardness,
I was chastised with mention of his name.
Failed I in any martial enterprise
Of sword or spear, or feat of horsemanship,
Still was I taunted with Enriquez' skill.
"How," would they ask, "wilt thou defend thy crown
From him hereafter who so far excels thee?
But thou hast suffered man to put them from thee.
Pedro. Whom speak'st thou of?
Maria.Thy brothers, oh my husband.
Alas, thy father's orphans have been wronged,
Because thy father loved them, and because
God hath exalted thee so far above them.
Pedro. So far as I was once abased beneath them.
I was my father's heir—they were his children.
They grew up in the sunshine—I in shadow.
My childhood's curse, my boyhood's bitterness,
Above all others was Enriquez' name.
Oft as my father showered fresh graces on him,
My mother tortured with her sighing pity,
And murmurs of despairing jealousy
The blushing agonies of my child's pride.
How would she prophesy o'er her victim boy
A thousand wrongs and perils from Enriquez,
And every lip around me echoed her.
If I offended in my waywardness,
I was chastised with mention of his name.
Failed I in any martial enterprise
Of sword or spear, or feat of horsemanship,
Still was I taunted with Enriquez' skill.
"How," would they ask, "wilt thou defend thy crown
From him hereafter who so far excels thee?
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