Page:Works of Sir John Suckling.djvu/131

] His faith and honesty, hereafter must

Look big in story. There you are safe, however;

And, when this storm has met a little calm,

What wild desire dares whisper to itself

You may enjoy, and at the worst may steal.

Ther. What shall become of thee, Aglaura, then?

Shall I leave thee their rage's sacrifice?

And, like dull seamen threaten'd with a storm,

Throw all away I have to save myself?

Agl. Can I be safe, when you are not, my lord?

Knows love in us divided happiness?

Am I the safer for your being here?

Can you give that you have not for yourself?

My innocence is my best guard, and that your stay,

Betraying it unto suspicion, takes away.

If you did love me

Ther. Grows that in question? then 'tis time to part! [Kisses her When we shall meet again, heaven only knows;

And, when we shall, I know we shall be old.

Love does not calculate the common way;

Minutes are hours there, and the hours are days;

Each day's an year, and every year an age.

What will this come to, think you?

Zir. Would this were all the ill!

For these are pretty little harmless nothings.

Time's horse runs full as fast, hard-borne and curb'd,

As in his full career, loose rein'd and spurr'd.

Come, come, let's away.

Ther. Happiness such as men, lost in misery,

Would wrong in naming, 'tis so much above them,

All that I want of it, all you deserve,

Heaven send you in my absence!

Agl. And misery, such as witty malice would

Lay out in curses on the thing it hates,

Heaven send me in the stead, if when y'are gone [Leads him out, and enters up out of the vault I welcome it but for your sake alone.

Zir. Stir not from hence, sir, till you hear from me:

So, good-night, dear prince.

Ther. Good-night, dear friend.

Zir. When next we meet, all this will but advance—

Joy never feasts so high,

As when the first course is of misery.