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jarring interest and civil broil with a thing so meekly 
beautiful as the rose, especially “ this pale and maiden 
blossom here.” There are several allusions in the same 
play to the rival flowers. The king, in his piteous lament 
at the sight of a father bearing from the battle-field the 
son whom he had unwittingly killed, exclaims: — 
“ O pity, pity, gentle Heaven, pity ! — 
The red rose and the white are on his face, 
The fatal colours of our striving houses.” 
And thus, again, in “ Richard the Third,” after the 
battle of Bosworth, Richmond, alluding to his anticipated 
marriage with the heiress of the house of York, says, 
“ We will unite the white rose with the red: 
Smile Heaven upon this fair conjunction 
That long hath frown’d upon their enmity.” 
Hay Drummond presented the following elegant im¬ 
promptu with a white rose to a lady of the Lancastrian 
party: — 
“ If this pale rose offend thy sight, 
It in thy bosom wear, 
’ T will blush to find itself less white. 
And grow Lancastrian there.” 
