Page:Works of Sir John Suckling.djvu/116

96 In readiness, nor is our friend Zephines

Arriv'd at Delphos; nothing is ripe. Besides

Ther. Good heav'ns! did I but dream that she was mine?

Upon imagination did I climb

Up to this height? Let me then wake and die!

Some courteous hand snatch me from what's to come,

And, ere my wrongs have being, give them end!

Zir. How poor and how unlike the prince is this!

This trifle, woman, does unman us all;

Robs us so much, it makes us things of pity.

Is this a time to loose our anger in,

And vainly breathe it out, when all we have

Will hardly fill the sail of Resolution,

And make us bear up high enough for action?

Ther. I have done, sir; pray chide no more;

The slave, whom tedious custom has inur'd,

And taught to think of misery as of food,

Counting it but a necessary of life,

And so digesting it, shall not so much as once

Be nam'd to patience, when I am spoken of.

Mark me; for I will now undo myself

As willingly as virgins give up all

First nights to them they love.

Zir. Stay, sir: 'twere fit Aglaura yet were kept

In ignorance. I will dismiss the guard,

And be myself again.

Ther. In how much worse estate am I in now,

Than if I ne'er had known her! Privation is

A misery as much above bare wretchedness

As that is short of happiness:

So, when the sun does not appear,

'Tis darker, 'cause it once was here.

Zir. Nay, gentlemen,

There needs no force where there is no resistance:

I'll satisfy the king myself.

Ther. O! it is well y'are come.

There was within me fresh rebellion,

And reason was almost unking'd again.

But you shall have her, sir.

Zir. What doubtful combats in this noble youth

Passion and reason have!