The Duke of Buckingham Character Analysis

Yes, but you know why I’m seeing you, Duke: I’m seeing you out of pity; I’m seeing you because you’ve stubbornly insisted on remaining in a city where you’re risking your life and making me risk my honor; I’m seeing you to tell you that everything separates us: the depths of the sea, the enmity of kingdoms, the sanctity of vows. It’s sacrilegious to struggle against all those things. And finally, I’m seeing you to tell you that we must never see each other again.

The king’s animosity against the queen was deftly nurtured by the cardinal, who was much warier of women than of men in matters of intrigue.

“Yes, Your Grace, because now that there’s talk of war, I must admit that I see you only as an Englishman and therefore as an enemy whom I’d rather meet on a battlefield than in Windsor Park or the halls of the Louvre. That won’t prevent me from doing everything in my power to carry out my mission; I’m prepared to die for it if necessary. But you have no more reason to feel grateful to me for what I’m doing now than for what I did the first time we met.”

The cardinal, as is well known, had been in love with the queen. We cannot say whether his love had a simple political goal or whether it was one of the deep passions that Anne of Austria aroused in those around her, but in any case we know that the duke of Buckingham had won out over him before the beginning of this story and that in later circumstances […] the duke had outwitted him.

“Monseigneur,” Milady interrupted, “I’ll trade you a life for a life, a man for a man; rid me of this one and I’ll rid you of the other.”

“He’s the man who’s ravaged England, persecuted true believers, and destroyed the honor of countless women, the man who’s plunged two kingdoms into bloody war to satisfy a whim of his depraved heart, the man who protects the Protestants today and will betray them tomorrow.”

“Buckingham!” Felton said furiously. “Yes, it’s Buckingham!”

“It was God’s will,” Felton said with a fanatic’s resignation. But he could not take his eyes off the sloop, and he imagined that he could see a woman on its deck, the woman to whom he had sacrificed his life.

Yes, but you know why I’m seeing you, Duke: I’m seeing you out of pity; I’m seeing you because you’ve stubbornly insisted on remaining in a city where you’re risking your life and making me risk my honor; I’m seeing you to tell you that everything separates us: the depths of the sea, the enmity of kingdoms, the sanctity of vows. It’s sacrilegious to struggle against all those things. And finally, I’m seeing you to tell you that we must never see each other again.

The king’s animosity against the queen was deftly nurtured by the cardinal, who was much warier of women than of men in matters of intrigue.

“Yes, Your Grace, because now that there’s talk of war, I must admit that I see you only as an Englishman and therefore as an enemy whom I’d rather meet on a battlefield than in Windsor Park or the halls of the Louvre. That won’t prevent me from doing everything in my power to carry out my mission; I’m prepared to die for it if necessary. But you have no more reason to feel grateful to me for what I’m doing now than for what I did the first time we met.”

The cardinal, as is well known, had been in love with the queen. We cannot say whether his love had a simple political goal or whether it was one of the deep passions that Anne of Austria aroused in those around her, but in any case we know that the duke of Buckingham had won out over him before the beginning of this story and that in later circumstances […] the duke had outwitted him.

“Monseigneur,” Milady interrupted, “I’ll trade you a life for a life, a man for a man; rid me of this one and I’ll rid you of the other.”

“He’s the man who’s ravaged England, persecuted true believers, and destroyed the honor of countless women, the man who’s plunged two kingdoms into bloody war to satisfy a whim of his depraved heart, the man who protects the Protestants today and will betray them tomorrow.”

“Buckingham!” Felton said furiously. “Yes, it’s Buckingham!”

“It was God’s will,” Felton said with a fanatic’s resignation. But he could not take his eyes off the sloop, and he imagined that he could see a woman on its deck, the woman to whom he had sacrificed his life.