... look you there On these good gentlemen, all friends of ours, The earls of Morton, Ruthven, and Argyll: For friends they are--upon their countenance We see it written. She turns to the English ambassador: ... Here's Sir Nicholas. What news of our dear cousin? Has she come At last to give that virgin heart away Into another's keeping, that brave Archduke, Who'd bite your hand, they say, as soon as kiss it-- Such manners are in Austria--or Charles, My dear French brother, who is well enough, And only fourteen years her junior? Not yet the happy moment? Patience, then, Another day you'll have that news for us. Sir Nicholas states formally Elizabeth's objections to Darnley, who interjects: By my beard! MARY. No! No! Not by your beard, dear Henry, or your oath Is emptier than a prince's promises-- Some princes we have heard of, we would say, Though cannot think it truth. Nay, let me hear What is it that my sister Princess wills Out of the largeness of her heart for me? The complexity of Mary's character is well brought out. There is, for instance, the little scene with Mary Beaton at the beginning of Act II. Here the Queen, discovering Darnley's infidelity, passes rapidly through half a dozen moods--from satirical bitterness to a fury of pride, and then to tears in which humiliation, gratitude, and tenderness are mingled. Mary Beaton has just said that the people pity their Queen: MARY. ... On my life, I'll not be pitied: pity is a chafe On open wounds of pride. To pity me Makes me a beggar--dare you pity me? BEATON. Sweet lady, I would not, but must perforce! MARY. Nay, would you have me weep? What thing am I That three soft words should drive the tear drops forth Like floods in winter? Nay, nay, good my girl, This is my body's weakness, not my soul's.