How to (& not to) love - loyalty to King Charles* being at issue...

Lady Carlisle
. . . Die, wherefore die?
Charles never loved you.
Strafford
And he never will.
He's not of those who care the more for men
That they're unfortunate. . . .

Lady Car.
. . . Strafford, -- I shall speak best if you'll not gaze
Upon me: I had never thought, indeed,
To speak, but you would perish, too, so sure!
Could you but know what 't is to bear, my friend,
One image stamped within you, turning blank
The else imperial brilliance of your mind, --
A weakness, but most precious, -- like a flaw
I' the diamond, which should shape forth some sweet face
Yet to create, and meanwhile treasured there
Lest nature lose her gracious thought forever!

[Robert Browning, from Strafford, A Tragedy II, ii]



* (King Charles the First of England, c. 1630s, one of the weakest and most vacillatingly 'elegant' characters on any throne in history, who ended up beheaded by his own people in consequence of a civil war.)