Page:Works of Sir John Suckling.djvu/214

194 Orsabrin. Sure 'tis eternal night with me! would this

Were all too!

For I begin to think the rest is true,

Which I have read in books, and that there's more

To follow.

Reginella. Sure this is he

Orsabrin. The pure and first-created light broke through

The chaos thus!

Keep off, keep off, thou brighter excellence,

Thou fair divinity! if thou com'st near,

(So tempting is the shape thou now assum'st),

I shall grow saucy in desire again,

And entertain bold hopes, which will but draw

More and fresh punishment upon me.

Reginella. I see y'are angry, sir: but, if you kill

Me too, I meant no ill. That which brought me hither

Was a desire I have to be with you

Rather than those I live with. This is all,

Believe't.

Orsabrin. With me? O thou kind innocence, witness all

That can punish falsehood, that I could live with thee,

Even in this dark and narrow prison, and think

All happiness confin'd within the walls!

O, hadst thou but as much of love as I!

Reginella. Of love! What's that?

Orsabrin. Why, 'tis a thing that's had, before 'tis known;

A gentle flame, that steals into a heart,

And makes it like one object so, that it scarce cares

For any other delights, when that is present;

And is in pain, when 't's gone; thinks of that alone,

And quarrels with all other thoughts that would

Intrude, and so divert it.

Reginella. If this be love, sure I have some of it.

It is no ill thing, is it, sir?

Orsabrin. O, most divine:

The best of all the gods strangely abound in't;

And mortals could not live without it: it is

The soul of virtue and the life of life.