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.130
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?135
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.140
If you did love me
Ther. Grows that in question? then 'tis time to part!
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;145
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.150
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,155
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 gone160
I welcome it but for your sake alone.[Exit
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,165
As when the first course is of misery.[Exeunt
