Page 1416 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

FIRST SERVANT

Say thou wilt course, thy greyhounds are as swift
As breathed stags, ay, fleeter than the roe.

SECOND SERVANT

Dost thou love pictures? We will fetch thee straight
Adonis painted by a running brook,
And Cytherea all in sedges hid, [50]
Which seem to move and wanton with her breath
Even as the waving sedges play with wind.

LORD

We’ll show thee Io as she was a maid,
And how she was beguiled and surpris’d,
As lively painted as the deed was done. [55]

THIRD SERVANT

Or Daphne roaming through a thorny wood,
Scratching her legs that one shall swear she bleeds,
And at that sight shall sad Apollo weep,
So workmanly the blood and tears are drawn.

LORD

Thou art a lord, and nothing but a lord. [60]
Thou hast a lady far more beautiful
Than any woman in this waning age.

FIRST SERVANT

And till the tears that she hath shed for thee
Like envious floods o’er-run her lovely face,
She was the fairest creature in the world; [65]
And yet she is inferior to none.

SLY

Am I a lord, and have I such a lady?
Or do I dream? Or have I dream’d till now?
I do not sleep. I see, I hear, I speak.
I smell sweet savours and I feel soft things. [70]
Upon my life, I am a lord indeed,
And not a tinker nor Christophero Sly.