Page:Poetical sketches reprint (1868).djvu/86

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68
KING EDWARD
William.
Is it a little creeping root that grows in ditches?

Dagworth.
Thou dost not understand me, William.
It is a root that grows in every breast;
Ambition is the desire or passion that one man
Has to get before another, in any pursuit after glory;
But I don't think you have any of it.

William.
Yes, I have; I have a great ambition to know everything, sir.

Dagworth.
But when our first ideas are wrong, what follows must all be wrong, of course; 'tis best to know a little, and to know that little aright.

William.
Then, sir, I should be glad to know if it was not ambition that brought over our king to France to fight for his right?

Dagworth.
Though the knowledge of that will not profit thee much, yet I will tell you that it was ambition.