Page:Works of Sir John Suckling.djvu/130

110 Keep 't for yourself, or lend it to the prince:

There is a dearth of that commodity;

And you have made it, sir.

Now,

What is the next mad thing you mean to do?

Will you stay here? when all the court's beset,

Like to a wood at a great hunt, and busy mischief hastes

To be in view, and have you in her power

Ther. To me all this?

For great grief's deaf, as well as it is dumb,

And drives no trade at all with counsel. Sir,

Why do you not tutor one that has the plague,

And see if he will fear an after-ague-fit;

Such is all mischief now to me, there is none left

Is worth a thought: death is the worst I know;

And that, compar'd to shame, does look more lovely now

Than a chaste mistress set by common woman;

And I must court it, sir?

Zir. No wonder, if

That heav'n forsake us when we leave ourselves:

What is there done should feed such high despair?

Were you but safe

Agl. Dear sir, be rul'd;

If love be love, and magic too,

As sure it is, where it is true;

We then shall meet in absence, and, in spite

Of all divorce, freely enjoy together

What niggard fate thus peevishly denies.

Ther. Yea: but, if pleasures be themselves but dreams,

What then are the dreams of these to men?

That monster, Expectation, will devour

All that is within our hope or power,

And ere we once can come to show how rich

We are, we shall be poor, shall we not, Zorannes?

Zir. I understand not this.

In times of envious penury, such as these are,

To keep but love alive is fair; we should

Not think of feasting him. Come, sir:

Here in these lodgings is a little door,

That leads unto another; that again

Unto a vault that has his passage under

The little river, opening into the wood;

From thence 'tis but some few minutes' easy business

Unto a servant's house of mine, who, for